On Monday, the Twin Lakes Village Board approved $107,500 for Payne and Dolan to improve roads on Oak Street, Maryknoll Court, and Catherine Avenue. This amount reflected only the base bid plus a 5 percent contingency for the original plan. With only $118,000 earmarked for improvements, the bid precluded two additional plans incorporating repairs to First Avenue and Grace Street.
According to David Cox, Village Administrator, the increase in pavement prices prevented the village from taking on the larger project.
“Twin Lakes should be striving to do two miles of road in a year, but $400,000 is out of reach for the Village,” he said. “This puts us in a difficult place because we are doing just a little less than a half-mile of road.”
The project includes removing existing surface and installing new asphalt, rather than adding additional layers to the damaged surface.
“Many of the roads are too high to add another inch and a half because they will be above existing driveways,” said Cox, adding, “That drives the price up too.”
Simply put, not enough money is available for needed road improvement. Cox explained that municipalities all over the Midwest are faced with the same problems, and added that frigid winter temperatures caused additional cracks and potholes.
The goal is to repave a street every 15 years, but Twin Lakes falls far behind the mark.
“We will have to, at some point, reach a decision,” he said. “Are we going to borrow a significant amount of money and do massive road improvement rather than just catch-up? It is an issue that we have to make a long term decision on how to face this.”