OPINION — The hits just keep coming. At the Feb. 3 council meeting, staff came forward with a street “oops.” Seems that the BOS street software and staff didn’t notice that some streets – supposedly fixed in 2016-18 – were not fixed. All the sudden, the town has a $3M backlog of some 20 streets in the Four Peaks and McDowell Mountain neighborhoods that are in desperate need of repair.
Staff said it must prioritize those streets for repair in the 2026-27 budget. That’s bad enough. It means that next year’s budget for street repairs will be gobbled up with these overlooked streets, while other anticipated repairs throughout the town may be delayed for yet another year.
Then council heard another presentation (an hour later) and authorized moving ahead with Thistle right now, a “direct select” street that the mayor suggested he wants to repair with excess funds saved with the repair of Palomino, another “direct select” street. Both streets are being repaired ahead of many scheduled streets needing repai,r according to the software. Council could have easily deferred Thistle to the out-year where it is supposed to be repaired and instead spend those excess funds by repairing those Four Peaks/McDowell Mountain neighborhood streets to begin to make up for this 2016-18 problem.
