Randall is set to take on major maintenance of town roads that would cost about $490,000 a year for five years after action at last week’s Town Board meeting.
While the Plan Commission and the Town Board both approved undertaking the project, precisely how the town will borrow to finance the program is yet to be determined.
Just from 2008 to 2009 the quality of the town’s roads dropped 20 percent, said Ken Ward, the town’s engineer.
“Once it starts to go, it goes quite quickly,” Ward said of the quality of town roads.
While summarizing a large report on the roads project, Ward explained that enough money to perform even the minimum needed maintenance — costing about $100,00 per year — could not be raised by increasing property taxes due to the town’s levy limits.
And if the town only spent the $100,000, the continued deterioration of roads would likely necessitate multi-million dollar expenditures for rebuilding in four to five years, Ward said.
Plan commissioners and Town Board members seemed in favor of spending more now and perhaps not having to rebuild roads so soon.
“In the long run, it’s going to cost us less,” said town Chairman Bob Stoll.
