With many crumbling, city searches for funding answer
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
The City of Burlington has many deteriorating alleys, with some rated in poor condition, but faces a dilemma in how to pay for resurfacing and reconstruction projects.
For several years, the city has opted not to perform maintenance work, considering the current plan places 100% of the responsibility on abutting property owners.
City officials have discussed the matter since last year when the Common Council learned property owners have voiced dissatisfaction with the condition of their alleys.
Peter Riggs, director of public works, said Oct. 5 the city’s alleys are lacking.
“The pavement condition of most of the city’s alleys is deficient and is a source of dissatisfaction for many of the abutting property owners,” he wrote in a memorandum to the council last October, adding the city has about 2.88 miles of alleys within the municipality.
The city typically rates alleys, or pavements, on a scale of 0-7 with the lowest ratings for surfaces at or near failures.
While officials noted 36.7% of alleys have failed, essentially deteriorating to a gravel condition, another 40.9% have undergone maintenance but have began to lose effectiveness and are bound for failure.
Since then, the Common Council has repeatedly discussed the matter during budget workshops, according to City Administrator Carina Walters.
“Alley deterioration has been a topic of conversation for several years, but more importantly, over the last budget workshops for the 2022 budget,” she said at a March 1 Committee of Whole meeting.
Walters said some Common Council members had concerns about the equity of the assessment for performing needed resurfacing and reconstruction projects on alleys.
The Common Council, however, didn’t come to clear consensus of how to fund alley projects during the meeting earlier this month.
To read the entire story see the March 17 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
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