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Every year, Public Works staff conducts a review of town streets and gives each a Pavement Condition Index rating based on a 19-point physical inspection. Each surface is given a rating from one to 100, with a lower rating indicating a surface in need of corrective maintenance. Mason emphasized that streets must be placed on a regular maintenance schedule so extreme measures, and a bigger road maintenance budget, are not needed in the future.

 

Streets currently listed in the FY11 milling and paving schedule are: the Rt. 15 bypass between the Rt. 7 overpass and Edwards Ferry Road; the Rt. 15 bypass from Edwards Ferry Road to Fort Evans Road; Fort Evans Road from the Rt. 15 bypass to Potomac Station Drive; Edwards Ferry Road from the Rt. 15 bypass to Heritage Way; Heritage Way from Edwards Ferry Road north to its end; Cedar Walk Circle from Fort Evans Road to Cedar Walk Circle; Kincaid Boulevard from Battlefield Parkway to Tammy Terrace; Kincaid Boulevard from Tammy Terrace to Patrice Drive; Oakcrest Manor Drive from Georgetown Court to Catoctin Circle; Daniels Street from Ayr Street to its end; Ayr Street from Daniels Street to Old Waterford Road; and Meadows Lane from Fort Evans Road to its end.

 

Nineteen other streets are listed for consideration if funds are still available after those projects are complete.

 

Last year, during the FY10 budget deliberations, the council voted to reduce the amount reserved for the milling and paving program by about $180,000. That money was restored at the end of the fiscal year, when Mason returned to the council with a list of streets that experienced a significant decline in their PCI because of the winter blizzards.

 

"I still believe we are over spending in this area," Dunn said, then making a motion to cap the FY11 milling and paving program at $800,000.

 

He was joined in support for his motion only by Reid and the two were the only to cast dissenting votes for funding the FY11 program as recommended. Mayor Kristen Umstattd was absent for the vote.

 

Reid said he was casting "a symbolic vote" against the program.

 

"I just think that we overdo it in this town. I think this is too much money to be spent," he said. "Some of these streets that I'm looking at here I just personally don't think are that critical," for milling and paving services in FY11.

 

Vice Mayor Kevin Wright said he believed that if the council chose to delete a chunk of funding for its milling and paving program it would only be moving increased costs to another year.

 

"We have a lot of stuff that we are deferring," he said. "I'm sensitive to the overall budget but we have continued to reduce this and keep it within a responsible scale."

 

Of the $3.5 million the town will spend on road maintenance in FY11, Mason said, $2.8 million is provided by VDOT, leaving a 25 percent gap filled by town funds.