The paving issue is not going away. That is the sentiment reflected in the latest Times' survey of Dorchester residents.
Earlier this month, we asked that only readers who reside in Dorchester's city limits answer our survey regarding support for paving more Dorchester streets. The request generated some interesting comments, which you can read in the comments section of this story.
Exactly 100 readers responded to the survey. In fact, there was such an overwhelming response that the host of the survey (Survey Monkey) shut it down at 100 votes -- which is why some of you had an "error" messages when you tried voting.
We asked: Should Dorchester residents be allowed to vote on the issue of paving, either on a block-by-block basis or for the entire village? Exactly 75% voted yes to voting on street paving, while 25% said that such a vote should not be allowed. There were no undecideds.
Then we asked: If you could choose between three options on the ballot, which would you choose? A majority -- 50% -- said they would vote to allow petitions for block-by-block street paving, while another 44% said they would vote for bonding to pave all Dorchester streets. Only 6% said they would vote for bonding to develop new housing with a paved street. (We were a bit surprised by that result.)
Finally, we asked: Will you vote for Dorchester Village Board candidates who support paving? A decisive 69% said, yes, they will vote for candidates who promise to support street paving, while around 13% said they would not. Another 19% said they would take several issues into consideration when voting on board candidates.
Again maybe you should get a realistic figure of what it"s going to cost each home owner, business owner , before you decide to vote on anything. I happen to have the figures in front of me from JEO Consulting group 9/7/2010, looks like $60.00 to 70.00 a running foot. Most home owners , that own a half a block, would be charged for 120 feet, plus lets just say 10 feet wide, for the sake of easy figuring, that figures out to 1200 square feet, times $60.00 . Hmmmm that's not counting general obligation, which includes , alleys, everything the town owns, and intersections, now I don"t no if my math is correct so I'm not going to put a figure out there, but lets say JEO is off by half, and its 30.00 a running foot, don"t think they could miss it by that much but then again this was done in 2010 so maybe things have went down by now , so for those people that want to vote on this do your own math, don"t get me wrong I"d love to see paving as much as the nest person , but with $4.00 corn & $3.40 gas oh by the way it went down at Coop today, it"s not in my budget, right at the moment, along with a new car & siding for my house. By the way people when everyone is for let the town pay for it .....we are the town, taxes pay for everything the town does . And last time I checked mine were plenty high now.... sorry for venting but I think people need a real figure before any thing goes up for a vote anywhere , blog, ballot , or wherever, if you want to see these figures its public record at the City Office , their not going to hide them from anyone
ReplyDeleteNot that I disagree with your conclusion, but paving cost are generally calculated per linear foot (not total square feet). Here is some information for a 20 ft wide span in florida (http://www.seminolecountyfl.gov/fs/pdf/road_paving.pdf). So, for 120 linear ft, the cost would be approximately $6,000 - $10,000 at the $60 per linear foot quote (including some finish out cost). While still expensive, it is a factor of 10 less than your estimate.
DeleteAgain, not for paving, but the real cost isn't as prohibitive as you made it sound.
I'd vote for bonding one paved street in a new development to bring new, young families to town. In a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteVoting is easy, paying for it is tough
ReplyDeleteI too would like to know real figures. When I attended the meeting back a few years ago it was calculated I would pay approx. $50 - $70 per month for 20 years. If that is true, I'm all in. I understand that there is general obligation that goes with that, but I'm told there are grants available & everyone pays including businesses and that the interest rate is very reasonable right now. What people don't seem to understand when they say their taxes are too high now, they're not going to go down if we don't get some new construction into town to help 'share' the load and that is not going to happen if we don't get at least part of the town paved. Get a number of $200,000 homes built & it will lift the load from the smaller/older homes. Please don't let this 'die' again. Residents of Dorchester, if you love this community than help it to grow & prosper. Yes, maybe we'll have to 'tighten our belts' but let's take a 'leap of faith' & 'git'r done'.
ReplyDeleteDrive through very tiny towns like Cordova, Clatonia, Denton, etc., they all have paving. We are the oddballs and dont tell me to move because I'm staying right here where my great grandparents were born. I want paving because my great grandma was born in the 1800s and our streets havent changed. please let us vote.
ReplyDeleteThink of the money you would save on car washes by not having to drive on gravel/mud roads anymore!
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
DHS Grad & Lincoln Resident
I try to vote, but I just keep getting an error message.
ReplyDeleteWhat's funny (or not so funny) is that I wrote the following comment on this very blog in 2007:
ReplyDeleteRecently the town that I live in completed a five district pavement improvement. The payment structure for the abutting land owners looked something like this:
6" thick, 30' wide concrete street with curb and gutter=
$63-$70 per linear foot
(Note this was just for paving, not including major improvements such as storm sewer, etc)
If land owner with lot of 66x132 with 66' being frontage:
66'x$63=$4158
66'x$70=$4620
In this case 10% of that total was due the first year leaving the balance to be paid yearly within 14 years at 6% interest. Both the max years and interest percentage were determined by our council and bonding institution.
If $4620 than 10%=$462 due first year. Balance of $4158 amortized over the 14 years at 6% = $447.34 per year=
$37.28 per month
***Now the rates for construction are probably closer to the $80-90 range, but the interest rate is closer to 3-3.5%. My town just tonight approved moving forward with 1.8 million projects. There is a cost to progress.
If we want to keep our village and draw new families to our community we need to pave. I say put it up for a vote -- Board can't get it done anyway because 3 vote no 2 vote yes (one person ran for the board on wanting paving then was a strong "no"). Let the people that live here decide. We either fight to keep this town and our school alive or we watch it all die. The village has worked hard and spent dollars to improve our water system and our infrastructure is being worked on -- why do all of this if we can't attract new families. The more new homes we have the lighter the tax load is for all of us. I have lived in Dorchester all my life and I want to try and make it a better place to live in the future.
ReplyDeleteAnother scare, people are moving here even without, put it in and they will leave like flies.
ReplyDelete