Budget Shortfall Halts Roadway Project

A cap on financial resources has caused one of Washington Township’s road projects to be cut off a full three-tenths of a mile shorter than originally planned.

The milling and paving project on Fairview Avenue leading up to Drakestown Road now stops a bit short, in the area of 358 Fairview, rather than at the intersection of Laketown Road, where it was originally scheduled to end.

The full project would have spanned 1.1 miles and is being completed by the township’s .

“(The township) gave us a $55,000 budget for the project,” Assistant Superintendent of the Department of Public Works Roger Read said. “We know once we started, to do the whole thing, we’d end up going over.”

Read also said the department needed to use $15,000 out of its own budget to complete the leveling course of the roadwork.

“Using that money from our budget just means there will be less to work on other potholes and road projects,” Read said.

The work began in the middle of the final week of June, Read said, and expects all the paving and additional shoulder work to be done by the middle of next week.

Kept in the dark

Kathlyn Carter, a Fairview Avenue resident whose home is located on the unpaved section of the roadway, said she didn’t know about the roadwork–or the new stopping point–until it was underway.

Carter said she never received a letter or notification from the town that the road would be closed to through traffic between Laketown and Drakestown Roads, and only found out when her husband had to drive around a barricade one day.

“I found out from a neighbor that the road was being paved along this stretch,” Carter said. “But when I saw where they were stopping, I asked why it was being done like that.”

Personnel of the DPW told Carter money for the project ran out, she said, and there was no information about when it would be completed.

A resident since 1989, Carter said she believed it was the first time that stretch of roadway had been milled and paved since she moved to town.

“We’ve never had kids in the schools and pay high property taxes,” Carter said. “And now they can’t complete the road because there’s not enough money? Where are my taxes going?”

Roger Freiday, a resident who lives on a private road off of Fairview Avenue, has been in Washington Township since 1966, and is glad to see the work being done.

“This was one of the worst roads I’ve ever seen,” Freiday said. “I’d love to see (all of Fairview Avenue) get paved, but the worst part definitely got done.”

Freiday said he wasn’t surprised by the financial shortfall for the project, and wondered when–and if–the 0.3-mile stretch would be completed at all.

The $55,000 allocation was part of a . Other repairs under that approval include Pleasant Grove and East Valley Brook Roads.

The .

"We ran out of funds for this particular project," Washington Township Mayor Ken Short said. "But we may still be able to have it complete this summer, depending on how the other projects turn out."

Short said some of the other projects came in under bid, and once all work is complete this summer, there may be funds available to complete the Fairview Avenue project.

"We're going to have the (DPW) work up some numbers to see what it would cost to complete the project," Short said. "And hopefully we'll be able to finish the paving."