An item that was previously brought up at the March 23 municipal budget meeting arose again at last week’s Medford Town Council meeting as a central discussion item.
The 2015 road program was the only thing left in question at the budget meeting, and it quickly became the main focus at the Public Safety Building that night.
“We wanted to see if we needed to add any more roads to the program,” Township Manager Kathy Berger said.
Berger sat down with township engineer Dante Guzzi and produced an extensive list of recommended roads based on received complaints and priority levels of these roads.
Chairville Road, Laurel Oak Lane, Stonycroft Court, Mulberry Street, Woodthrush Trail and South Lakeside Drive West were all roads that were featured on this list.
“I kind of feel like we needed to play catch up for a few years, and in the process of going through this audit, set it up so that in three or four years, we’ll have something that we can plan for long term sustainability so that we’re not in the position of having to play catch up again,” Councilman Chris Buoni said.
This will be over and above the roads program from last year, which is technically still being completed.
“That’s really just clean up now; that’s pretty much done,” Guzzi said.
At the March 23 budget meeting, council allocated about $360,000 more to set aside for this program that is estimated to cost $890,000 total. This total also covers the road going overtop of the two dams at Mimosa Lakes that are being repaired.
Buoni’s idea of bundling all of these roads together when going out to bid for the program, and potentially making it a five-year plan to save money, was shot down due to the conditions of roads varying so much over such a long period of time.
“So if we do these roads, we can still stay within our budget without getting rid of anything else that we asked for in capital improvements,” Mayor Charles Watson said.
After much discussion, council unanimously approved the 2015 road program.
“We clearly have to start fixing our roads,” Watson said.
The next council meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. on June 16 at the Public Safety Building.
