POLL: Westport Roads Long Overdue For Major Repairs, Repaving

Westport roads have suffered recently due to , something that will take approximately five years and about $2 million per year to fix, according to Public Works Director Steve Edwards.

“This year I am trying to play a little catch up with the previous years,” Edwards said at a Board of Finance formal budget hearing at Monday night.

Westport’s paving budget over the past five years:

• 2008 - $1,500,000
• 2009 - $2,000,000
• 2010 - $1,200,000
• 2011 - $580,000
• 2012 - $953,000

Edwards requested a $1.73 million paving budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year ($777,300 increase over last year), which he believes will provide the town with nine miles of freshly paved roads.

Furthermore, Edwards indicated he would be able to shave $90,000 of off his proposed budget if he purchases salt in advance for next winter. Prices are on the decline and Edwards believes they will hit ‘rock bottom’ in June.

Board of Finance member Janis Collins advocated that those savings be put directly back into repairing and repaving our roads.

“The roads are important infrastructure in this town and we really need to put back the money that we have taken away from them in the past three or four years,” Collins said.

Edwards explained that road repairs can get complicated when attempting to undertake too many projects in one year. Finance board member Tom Lasersohn agreed and acknowledged that the paving budget has already increased dramatically.

“I don’t think we want to throw more money at a problem we cannot even manage,” Lasersohn said.

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Board member Michael Rea noted the paving budget’s 70 percent increase over last year’s budget and that it is triple what it was two years ago. Board of Finance Vice Chair Helen Garten said that was something that was explained to the finance board during their budget workshops.

“We are going to have to bite the bullet and deal with this for the sake of our roads,” Garten said.

A motion to increase the paving budget by $90,000 was denied (3-4), in fact, a motion proposed to reduce the paving budget by $40,000 to a total of $1.69 million was passed (4-3). A total Public Works budget was approved (4-3) for $8,940,447. 

Do you have bad potholes in your neighborhood? Post the locations here. Public Works can't fix what they aren't aware of, so a running list of potholes can help them locate problem spots.