By Roger Pugh
Contributing Writer
The Piedmont City Council Monday voted to add a $28 monthly fee to the water bill of Piedmont residents to pay for construction costs to rebuild roads on a list of priority roads also adopted Monday.
The new $28 fee will be combined with the $10 road repair fee already on the monthly city water bill. That total of $38 will be dedicated to the roads on the list of roads recommended by a citizen’s committee appointed by the council to study local roads. The committee’s list was tweaked two weeks ago by the council at a city council workshop called to look closer at the committee’s recommendations.
The council adopted a five-year plan to rebuild and make major repairs to local roads on the. The new $28 fee combined with the existing $10 monthly fee will provide an estimated $1.14 million per year for the road construction.
The new fee will first appear on the March 1 water bill. The council indicated it would continue the fee through at least the first two years of the five year plan, and would revisit the financing mechanism later to determine if the fee should continue or if another method to fund the next three years of the five-year plan would be needed.
In fiscal year 2020-2021, which begins in July, the city will spend an estimated $1.15 million to fix Piedmont Rd. from 192nd to 206th and 164th from Cemetery to Frisco Roads.
To learn more about the city projects, click the image below.
The section of Piedmont Road proposed to be repaired, which was the number four priority on the citizen’s committee recommendations list, has a daily traffic count of 2,800 and will cost $750,000 to repair. The 164th street project, number eight priority on the citizen committee recommendations, carries about 500 cars a day and will cost $400 ,000.
During fiscal year 2021-2022, the council will repair 164th from Mustang to Sara Roads (second on the committee’s list), and 220th from Piedmont Rd. to Mustang Rd. (first on the list).The 164th from Mustang to Sara Roads carries 700 vehicles per day and the cost for repairs is estimated at $650,000. The latter 2021-2022 project has 500 cars a day traveling that section of road and the cost is pegged at $400,000, for a total of $1,050 for both roads.
Already budgeted in the current fiscal year is $1.15 million to repair Mustang Rd. from 164th to 178th, and Piedmont Rd. from 206th to 220th. This section of Mustang Rd. carries 900 vehicles per day and will cost $400,000 to repair. The Piedmont Road project, with 2,100 cars per day, will cost $750,000.
Council members agreed that construction in the five-year plan should be on section line roads. As a result, roads in Rolling Prairie, Van Buren, Elk and Monroe, a $400,000 project, and one of two projects on the original 2022-2023 plan was scrapped. All other projects in the plan scheduled after this project were moved up. This means 178th Street from Piedmont Road to Cemetery Rd., originally on the fiscal year 2023-24 list, will be scheduled for work in fiscal year 2022-2023. The Rolling Prairie project carries 500 vehicles per day and the 178th street project currently handles 2,400 vehicles daily.
At the workshop two weeks ago, council members stressed that any road repairs will be thoroughly inspected each step of the way and the roads will be quality projects.
“We’re expecting these roads to last 25-30 years, Mayor Kurt Mayabb said.
Councilman John Brown noted at the workshop, and Monday he and other council members again stressed that the roads proposed for the upcoming two-year package and the two roads to be repaired in this year’s budget are not the only roads that would be fixed. Brown said the city also has approximately $500,000 in road funds to maintain other roads during the next fiscal year.
“We’ll figure those repairs when we budget (for next fiscal year) in a couple of months,” Brown said at the workshop.
The city has also purchased a new patching truck and it is slated to arrive in April, council members were told Monday.
This (the patching truck) will also help us fix potholes in other places,” Mayabb recently said.
Councilman Kevin Blasdel noted if the $10 fee on the water bill is combined with the new $28 addition to the water bill, and the full $38 is dedicated only to the roads on the five year plan, the city will be short the $300,000 the $10 now generates for road repairs and maintenance.
Brown and councilwoman Melissa Ashford both said they believed the council can find cash elsewhere in future budgets to plug the $300,000 shortfall general road repairs and maintenance would suffer from losing the $10 fee to the five-year plan.
Council members were considering either a bond issue or the $28 hike to pay for the estimated $7.2 million five-year plan.
They settled on the $28 water bill add-on for several reasons stated by council members.
Mayabb said the bond issue would cost the city another $1.2 million in interest and fees over five years, while other council members noted that the Piedmont school district is looking to soon pass a large bond issue and they feared if the city took the bond issue route, it could jeopardize passage of one or both bond issues. Others observed that everyone in the community, not just property owners will share in the cost of the project.
In other city business Monday, the council voted to enter into an inter-local Participation agreement with Buy Board, a national purchasing cooperative. Fire Chief Andy Logan told the council Buy Board goes out for competitive bids on items, so the city does not have to go through the competitive bidding process. He said Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has said that this process would be a legal bidding process.
Logan said a fire engine and many other pieces of equipment and items the city might need can be purchased cheaper through Buy Board.
The council also authorized Brinley Engineering to conduct a drainage survey and design work for Piedmont Road from 206th to 220th. Approved changes required by the IRS to the city and municipal authority’s benefit plan, approved the final plat of Autumn chase Town Central, Phase II, and approved and revised an ordinance that required signs to be setback 25 feet from the right-of-way on the front of a property. The revision calls for signs to be setback two feet from the right-of-way easement.
