Board of Aldermen — 4/11/17 Page 14
Alderman Clemons
| have a question through you to Alderman Deane. Alderman, you have in the past have expressed your
distaste for bonding paving. I’m curious as to your reasons why you felt this was important to do because |
respect your opinion, and | think | would like to hear it.
Alderman Deane
After seeing the presentation and the indexing that was brought in and the conditions of our streets, it was time
to move forward with the plan. | am really happy that Alderman Siegel has answered that question that has
been asked time and time again about Mayor Lozeau’s plan. It wasn’t a plan. We had purchased that
software. There was a lot of data to collect. They had to input all the data to come up with the indexing that
was done that was made part of what brought this resolution forward.
People are throwing these questions around that you can’t commit future boards. | got on this board in 2002.
My then colleagues, Alderman McCarthy, Alderman Bolton, | think Lori was here, you guys had committed me
as an alderman who had never served before to a couple of high schools, the stadium. All of these things
were in the budget. Well you know what? | look at that as there were previous boards, there were people that
were here, and those were the decisions that they made. Citizens elected those people to make those
decisions. And they made them. Whether you liked them or not or whether you showed up your first day on
the rodeo and you’re going to be complaining about it, but to sit there and say this is the first bonded paving
project, what about the Broad Street Parkway? There was $40 million or Lord knows what the figure is, it’s up
and down all the time, that were committed to future boards for a big paving project. Right? Where’s the
maintenance plan for that? There isn’t one.
So to sit there and throw rocks at this, we’re in a position now where we have to do something. | urge you
folks. | was down by Exit 4 today. Come up Exit 4 up off Harris Road. You'd be tripping from the ruts in the
street. When we look at the comment about the arterials. Get on Daniel Webster Highway. That’s a little bit
wider than say Taylor Street. If we had to reconstruct those roadways, the cost would enormous.
We're retiring debt every year, every year. You can look at bonding in many different aspects and the
availability of cash and things of that nature, but | like this plan. | think it is a good plan. | was disappointed
that the amendment that | had to make wasn’t included in the original piece of legislation because it should
have been. | wanted to put it in there. Nobody is hiding anything from anybody. Decisions are going to have
to be made. It’s time for us to do something.
| was up in Concord the other day. Their roads are atrocious. | have two colleagues here that drive up there
all the time. You go through those back streets of Pleasant Street and up through there, it’s unbelievable. |
think it’s a good project, and | think we should move forward.
Alderman Clemons
| appreciate your response, Alderman Deane. Thank you very much. I’m compelled to support it as well. |
look at the roads we drive on every day and the conditions are bad. They are bad in my personal
neighborhood. We do have to do something. One way or the other, we are going to pay for it. You're either
going to pay for the roads through your taxes by doing this or you are going to pay for it when you pothole and
you have to realign your car, replace a tire, pay a higher price for auto insurance. These are things that you're
going to pay for one way or the other. We might as well do it right and get the streets in good condition so | will
support this.
Alderman Dowd
| agree it is a lot of money, but how did we get here? We've been ignoring the streets for so long taking money
out of previous budgets. The paving we did do, Tinker Road is a good example. About a year ago they skim
coated it and it looked great until the first winter. The plows dug it up and now it is like going through a mine
