BY ART BUKOWSKI
abukowski@record-eagle.com
TRAVERSE CITY —
The idea of dedicating dollars to neighborhood streets and sidewalks sits well with Kathy Riley.
"Well, I love my new sidewalk," Riley said, gesturing to a strip of clean, white squares in front of her Wood Avenue home in the city's Traverse Heights neighborhood. "Now, I don't have to worry about anybody getting hurt out there."
Across town in historic Central Neighborhood, Andy Rink was equally agreeable with the thought of increased neighborhood infrastructure spending. His section of Seventh Street is in decent shape, but a noticeable pothole in front of his home could use fixing.
"I'm a big fan of repairing potholes (and) keeping ahead of that kind of stuff," Rink, 40, said. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
Traverse City Commissioner Mike Gillman wants to set neighborhood infrastructure spending at $1 million a year for the next 15 years, part of ongoing budget discussions.
"The concern in the neighborhoods has typically been that downtown gets the attention and neighborhoods don't," Gillman said.
Neighborhood streets didn't receive much attention until a push in recent years to ramp up infrastructure spending there. The city dedicated $1.1 million in neighborhood infrastructure spending in 2009-2010, up from $100,000 in 2007-08.
Gillman wants to make sure spending doesn't backslide.
"Credit has to start with former Mayor (Michael) Estes," Gillman said. "He pushed this to the front-burner."
The current commission doesn't have the legal ability to bind future commissions' spending decisions, City Manager Ben Bifoss said, though they can set a precedent for future commissions by supporting Gillman's cause.
Gillman said that's his goal.
"If a commission makes a public commitment of that kind, it would make it an awful lot harder for future commissions to back down," he said.
The 2010-11 budget, which commissioners must approve soon, is expected to include $1 million for neighborhood infrastructure. Current commissioners are on board with the idea of steady neighborhood spending.
"I think we need to spend the amount that the budget will possibly allow," Commissioner Barbara Budros said.
Mayor Chris Bzdok thinks $1 million isn't enough. He'd rather see $2 million a year or more directed to streets and other infrastructure.
"We need to consistently challenge ourselves to do better," he said. "You want to strive to do better and better every year, you don't want to just set a number and say it's good enough.
But Bzdok doesn't believe it's worthwhile to worry about crafting a resolution to that effect.
"Because we can't bind future commissions, it's really not a meaningful thing to spend time on," he said.
