Letter: SLT failing when it comes to street repair
Publisher’s note: The following letter was read by Brady Hodge at the Jan. 19 South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting and is reprinted with permission.
I don’t have to remind anyone in this room that the reason this city was formed in 1965 was for better basic essentials, including police, fire, snow removal, and street maintenance resulting through local control.
The poor and deteriorated and neglected condition of the streets in this city is failing one of the basic commitments made by this city when it was founded.
The poor condition of the streets, and complaints by residents and property owners in the Tahoe Keys, have forced the property owners association to form a separate, special committee just to address this one issue.
The Tahoe Keys provides the city with significant revenue streams:
- The 1,529 Tahoe Keys properties are the source of over 20 percent of the city’s residential property taxes.
- The 328 VHRs, at last count, located in the Tahoe Keys are paying annual license fees and substantial transient occupancy tax to the city.
For the city to fail to reinvest in the infrastructure of these neighborhoods by allowing the streets to deteriorate to the point that they’re at today, is incomprehensible. The poor condition of the streets in this city is deplorable, and disgraceful.
The streets in the Tahoe Keys represent only 9 percent of the city’s streets. Yet to my recollection, the only street in the Tahoe Keys that’s been repaved by the city during the last 20 years is a portion of Venice Drive. TKPOA — the property owners association — has done more repaving than the city during this time; it repaved Kokanee and Marconi when it replaced water lines. The only other street paving work has been done piecemeal by water and utility companies and the [California Tahoe] Conservancy.
And the poor condition of many of the streets in other neighborhoods throughout the city is even worse than in the Keys.
This is not a record to be proud of. My opinion, and that of many of my neighbors and other city residents, is that the poor condition of the streets in this city is by far the city’s most serious problem today.
Why are these streets in such poor shape? The responsibility for these crumbling streets rests directly upon your shoulders. Something has to change. The responsible thing to do would be to rearrange priorities to budget annually for pavement maintenance and replacement to return the city’s streets to their prior, more acceptable condition.
Just a thought……The city has claimed Snowglobe is a moneymaker-so much money that it does not matter what the tax paying community think….let’s use the revenue from the 3 day “event” for good, not evil.
I’ve said for years the City should just dissolve itself due to their perpetual mismanagement. Changes in City leaders haven’t changed the situation. It seems to be in their collective DNA to take any situation or responsibility & handle it in the worst way possible. The City residents deserve much better although they do keep electing these people so maybe they don’t deserve better.
AnotherX.
And what choices are these folks given? Just look at the mess with Joann Conner because ‘they’ don’t like the language she uses. She represents 2,396 voters out of a total of ?voters?
No one with any sense will go against the ‘local civil maffie’, They have to live here and their children have to go to school here. They fear reprisals and they Will get them if they speak out or G forbid run against them for any office in South Lake Tahoe.
Thank you Brady for speaking up and writing this letter. The city is not being realistic in terms of the cost maintaining our infrastructure and specifically our roads. The potholes are so bad in town and very dangerous. It is a scary experience trying to bike during the summer on our paved streets unless you have a full suspension mountain bike. The City had to borrow to repave Venice and a few other main collector streets it did a few years ago and they have no long-term plan or maintenance schedule to overlay any other roadways in town. Most cities have a maintenance schedule where roadways receive a new overlay on a regular maintenance schedule. This saves money in the end because the roads are maintained and require less work than when they are left to disintegrate like they have been in S. Lake. It would be nice to see the City come up with a long-term plan to address the deferred maintenance of our roads. Eventually property values will drop if the degradation of our roads is not addressed.
The City in 1970 had a Program that 12 miles of streets would be paved every year, It was Called “The City Overlay Program” and the City would cover all Streets in 10 years, for 2 years the City repaved 10 miles of Streets, then the Oil Prices started to rise and Asphalt went up in price and the money for the program did not increase and fewer and fewer streets got paved until they were only able to pave 1 mile or less.
There is only one answer to this problem. Assessment Districts. Every property owner would then be taxed over a 30 period and you will have all new streets.
You had better pray that you don’t get a couple of large Snow Storms in a row because you have a Snow Removal crew that is not prepared. The City of So.Lake Tahoe once had the finest Snow Removal in the Country, now I would rank it some where in the poorest in the Country.
Brady Hodge is correct as to why the City was formed,Snow Removal, Police and Fire and in my way of thinking Snow Removal is the most important and here’s why, If the roads are not passable, There is no need for the Police or Fire Dept, because they will not be able to respond to your needs if they can’t get there.
Assessment Districts, Only way out, Good luck getting that done but if you want your streets repaired it’s Assessment Districts
I called the city last summer and asked them to come out and repair some dangerous cracks and pot holes. I was told that the city employees that would normally complete street repairs in the summer were helping to build the BMX course instead. I was shocked that our city would place building a BMX course above street repairs. It is only a matter of time till someone is injured and sues the city over these dangerous roads!
Right on, Brady! Thanks for taking the initiative to address these deplorable road conditions with the City Council. A friend of ours tripped over a crack on Margaret Avenue last year. Luckily, she was not seriously injured. A report was made to City staff. Although the representative responded to our concern, the Street Maintenance Supervisor never even bothered to contact us. This is not the way concerns were addressed back in my day!