Streets and Sidewalks...Again

You may have heard that Franklinton received a $40,000 grant to create a full Capital Improvement Plan. Why would we need something like this? Because we want to ensure that we have a plan for how to improve infrastructure in Franklinton over the next 25 years. One big piece of this is our streets. As you likely know, there are many streets in Franklinton that are in a severe state of disrepair. So why haven’t we already fixed them? Because we know that it’s likely we’ll have to replace water or sewer lines in those same areas…which is why we aren’t repaving, only to have to patch what we’ve just paved when we replace lines. The Board of Commissioners and Staff are doing our best to be diligent and efficient when it comes to the use of your money – and it’s all your money in one way or another.

One major street I am concerned with, however, is Janice Avenue. It is perhaps the most heavily used side street in Franklinton, and I’d hedge my bets to say it’s likely the fifth or sixth most heavily trafficked street in Town. And it’s falling apart. I’d like to see it repaved at the least, and curbed and guttered at the best. We’re working on it now. Once we know how much it will cost, we’ll bring it to the Board for discussion. We have over $200K in the fund balance (the money left over from previous budgets that hasn’t been spent…effectively, the Town’s savings account) that can only be used for streets and sidewalks. These are important issues to me. And I promise…in the next two years, hopefully we’ll see some movement on them.