T-R PHOTO BY JOE FISHER City Engineer Jay Koch delivered a report on the conditions of Marshalltown’s streets to the City Council Monday. The report showed 42-percent of the city’s streets are in ‘Poor’ or ‘Very poor’ condition.
Road pavement conditions in Marshalltown are a known problem but the city council was made aware of just how serious the problem is.
City Engineer Jay Koch delivered a pavement condition report during a regular Marshalltown City Council meeting Monday. The report included street-by-street conditions and a data analysis forecasting how increased spending can turn things around.
“We have 42 percent of our streets that are basically going to need to be rebuilt,” Koch said. “There’s just too many things wrong with them to go in and put a Band-Aid on them.”
The report shows only 8 percent of Marshalltown’s roads are in ‘excellent’ condition.
The city budgets about $3 million toward street repairs annually, which according to Koch will see the city continue to fall behind on street conditions.
“Basically you’re going to have more streets go into the poor and very poor category,” he said. “When you start to do reconstruction, $3 million doesn’t go very far.”
Koch’s report showed budgeting $6 million toward street repairs would increase the number of ‘excellent’ streets, but ‘poor’ streets would continue to be an issue. At an $8 million budget, ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ streets lessen in 10 years. A $10 million budget is where Koch said the real improvement would be seen, but he noted funding such an investment would require the council to make some hard decisions.
Following the road condition report, the council continued the general obligation borrowing discussion from its last meeting. The council previously discussed whether it should increase its council imposed borrowing limit of 60 percent of its legal debt capacity.
“That report on the streets was, it was an excellent report and it was an awful report. It’s the stuff of nightmares,” said Council Member Bethany Wirin, who led the meeting with Mayor Joel Greer absent. “It’s clear we have to make some investments.”
Council Member Gabe Isom said the borrowing limit does not make sense if the council wants to continue seeing projects get done.
Council Member Al Hoop said he favored leaving the borrowing limit alone and taking a year off from spending.
“It would be nice to go one year without breaking the bank,” he said.
Council Member Mike Ladehoff, who was on the council when it instated the borrowing limit, said he is hesitant to borrow more because it could affect the city’s bond rating. A lower bond rating would mean higher interest rates on borrowed money. City Administrator Jessica Kinser shared the city’s credit analysis from August 2020, which states what factors could downgrade the city’s bond rating. Its borrowing limit was not one of those factors.
“Because the debt capacity was capped at 60 percent from ’97 — this is why we have 55 percent of our streets that are in dire need of repair,” said Council Member Gary Thompson. “As much as I hate borrowing money, I think we should take it to 75 percent. If we wait another year, we actually lose more years in the future with what we have to recover.”
Thompson suggested using local option sales tax dollars, amounting to about $1 million, for property tax relief. He also said the city should end its tax abatement program so it does not have to wait on revenue from new housing projects.
Thompson later said the city is receiving far better interest rates on borrowing than it has in past years.
“So we’re afraid to go up to 75 percent but previous councils were borrowing at three times what we’re getting today and probably slapping each other on the back,” he said.
Ladehoff asked Kinser if an increase in the council’s borrowing limit would result in an immediate increase in city spending. She said it would not and staff has identified $9.75 million in projects the city could move forward with.
Thompson motioned to increase the city’s borrowing limit to 75 percent. Council Member Mike Gowdy was absent for the meeting, meaning Thompson needed four votes to pass his motion. Thompson, Isom, Wirin and Ladehoff voted in favor of the motion.
“With everything being a high priority, I suggest making a list of what can be cut,” said Council Member Bill Martin. “We need to take a long, hard look and consider some things we said ‘yes’ for. Put a stop sign out and reconsider.”
The list of projects the city is budgeting for will be discussed again at the next council meeting on July 26.
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Contact Joe Fisher at
news@timesrepublican.com.
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