Lysander: Town engineer presents road map for repairs

By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

While the town of Lysander has allotted $680,000 for road repairs in this year’s budget, Town Engineer Al Yager reiterated his annual plea for more funding. During his presentation of the 2018 pavement maintenance plan at the Lysander Town Board’s May 3 meeting, Yager said the town ought to be spending nearly twice as much on fixing the roads.

“We’re treading water,” Yager said.

According to the the Cornell Asset Management Plan Road System (CAMP-RS) software, Lysander’s roads require a total of $5.6 million in repairs. Yager said the town would need to spend $1.2 million annually to keep up with those repairs.

At the current funding rate, Yager said, it would take Lysander nine years to fix the problems the Cornell program identified in its assessment of 2017.

Yager said 46 percent of the town’s roads need some level of maintenance, and 1.3 percent need full-depth reconstruction. It costs $1 million per mile to completely repave a road.

Yager said the town is trying to save money by hauling its own stone and collaborating with other municipalities. Lysander and Van Buren went in on a bid for hot mix asphalt and saved more than $66,000 compared to the county bid.

Looking ahead, Yager and Highway Superintendent Jerry Hole said West Entry Road looms large as a concern for 2019.

“West Entry was falling apart in front of our shop,” Hole said.

West Entry Road already takes a beating from heavy commercial traffic headed to Anheuser-Busch and McLane Northeast. The Baldwinsville Central School District will be constructing its new transportation facility on West Entry Road as well. The road is on this year’s list of repairs to prepare for resurfacing after the bus garage is finished.

“We’re probably going to burn a quarter of [next year’s road maintenance budget] on West Entry,” Yager said.

According to the city of Syracuse’s Department of Public Works, the city will spend $3.5 million to pave 3.5 miles of road in 2018. At that rate, it would take Syracuse 117 years to repave its 411 miles of road.

“This isn’t just Syracuse. This is America as a whole. We have neglected our infrastructure to the point that it’s going to take a serious capital investment to bring us up to a standard that’s acceptable, quite frankly,” Yager said. “We’re abusing our vehicles. We’re killing our vehicles. It costs more to truck things.”

During the public comment period at the end of the meeting, former Highway Superintendent Gene Dinsmore linked the referendum on the possible $400,000 bond for the proposed spray park to the highway department’s underfunding woes.

“That same $400,000 — I ask you all and I ask the voters to prioritize a little bit,” Dinsmore said. “We just heard the town engineer put on for the fourth year in a row that we need a million dollars a year to bring our roads up to where we need to be.”

Dinsmore said if the town added the $400,000 intended for the spray park to the 2018 pavement maintenance budget of $680,000, the highway department would have $1,080,000 to spend.

“I’m going to be voting for the roads,” Dinsmore said.

Ultimately, residents voted down the spray park bond proposal. (Click here for more information.)