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2 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Ticket availability ... As It Was: 'Infidel Hall' in Talent hosted 'Mental Library' ... Applications for marijuana dispensaries increase ... Ticket availability ... As It Was: 'Infidel Hall' in Talent hosted 'Mental Library' ... Applications for marijuana dispensaries increase ... COUNCIL CORNER Council Corner: Addressing Ashland's asphalt problem Comment By Rich Rosenthal DailyTidings.com By Rich Rosenthal Posted Jul. 14, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Rich Rosenthal Posted Jul. 14, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Later this year, the Public Works Department will provide the City Council a report on how the city of Ashland should best address the ongoing street maintenance funding shortfall. Because we all use the streets, it will be a very important discussion. It doesn't take expert analysis to notice many of Ashland's streets are rough rides because of "alligator" cracking, uneven utility cuts and other defects — just ask the folks who live along or frequently drive on Granite, Mountain Avenue, East Main, Hersey, Walker, upper Normal, lower Tolman Creek and upper Park, to name a few. Despite the diligent and excellent efforts of the city's street division staff who strive to extend the life span of Ashland's 92 miles of paved streets, street funding isn't robust enough to do much more than merely keep existing surfaces from falling into the costly "reconstruct" Pavement Condition Index category. These efforts consist of base repair (digging out a few of the worst road sections), crack sealing and slurry seals (applying a thin layer of emulsified asphalt). Maintaining streets is expensive. According to an April 20 staff report, overlays cost about $285,000 per mile, compared with street reconstruction at about $1.4 million per mile. If Ashland’s streets fall into the "reconstruct" category, the repair cost is roughly $128 million, whereas timely overlays at $285,000 per mile would cost $26 million. According to a recent analysis by Pavement Services Inc., almost 26 miles of the city's streets require an overlay of varying degrees, and nearly 3 miles of roads require a complete re-do. The consultants recommend completing pavement treatments for the backlogged road segments within the next five years at an estimated cost of $13 million. Maintaining the remaining residential street network is estimated to cost $19.7 million for overlays and $500,000 for slurry seals. The majority of street maintenance funding comes from state gas taxes and our local transportation utility fee. The state gas tax was increased 6 cents per gallon a few years ago, but the fund is not indexed for inflation, so revenue does not keep pace with operational needs. Meanwhile, the transportation fee costs residents living in single-family homes approximately $8.60 per month, including the recent City Council-adopted 3 percent increase. The bottom line is the funding mix is not adequate to achieve best practices for the long term, and we need to examine alternate strategies. One idea is to move away from the existing transportation user fee and implement a new methodology that uses trip generation rates based on proportional usage of the trips generated by land use. How Ashland addresses the challenge to its civic pavement management strategy will soon be debated. It may be a bumpy ride. Rich Rosenthal is a member of the Ashland City Council. By Rich Rosenthal DailyTidings.com By Rich Rosenthal Posted Jul. 14, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. 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