The City of Williams doesn’t have a street that a lot of money couldn’t fix.
The city recently commissioned a Pavement Management Plan to provide a clear understanding of the current condition of Williams’ roadways – and the estimated cost of repairs and maintenance.
According to the plan, the city has about 30 centerline miles of paved roads, with 43.8 percent in very poor or failed condition, and another 24.5 percent in poor condition, officials said.
City Engineer Trin Campos said it would take about $39.8 million in both preventative maintenance and rehabilitation to bring the city’s streets to good or excellent condition.
“We have to work at both ends in the city,” Campos said. “Some streets need to be reconstructed; Others, we need to have a chance to do preventative maintenance to keep them in good shape for years to come. That is the challenge to balance that work with limited funds.”
Like most small towns, which receive only a small amount of the money they generate in gas taxes back from the state, the ability to repair streets is almost unattainable.
City Administrator Frank Kennedy said the city receives about $250,000 in state funds for roads, of which $100,000 is spent filling potholes; $100,000 on patchwork; and $50,000 on maintenance.
According to Harris & Associates, which completed the pavement management plan, the city would need to budget $900,000 annually to begin to show improved conditions, or, ideally, $4 million a year to make significant improvements over a 10-year period.
However, doing nothing is not an option, said City Administrator Frank Kennedy.
“I would like to show the citizens what $1 million a year would look like on our roads,” Kennedy said. “If we took an entire length of road, like E Street, and completely paved it from one end to the other, citizens would be able to look at that and say, ‘wow, it’s possible. This is what we can do.’”
To get to that $1 million, Kennedy suggested the City Council once again consider placing a half cent sales tax measure once again before the voters on the November 2022 ballot, which would generate about $750,000 annually, which, along with the $250,000 in road funds would put the city in a position to invest in road projects or leverage the money for additional funding.
Kennedy said the message to their citizens is that if they don’t want to increase the sales tax, then they have to get comfortable with how the city looks and feels right now because that is how the city is going to look and feel for many, many years.
City officials said they understand that public outreach will be needed for people to understand the need to increase sales taxes, which they estimate will be passed predominantly to travelers on Interstate 5 that stop for fast food and gasoline.
Kennedy estimates that about 90 percent of sales tax revenue comes from visitors to the city.
While residents also purchase taxable goods and gas locally, Kennedy estimated that the average household spends about $3.60 a week on sales taxes in Williams.
“For less than the cost of a latte every week, we could make some serious dents in the roads and to the community, but specifically the roads,” Kennedy said.
City officials believe it is possible the sentiments may have changed since the previous sales tax measure met with failure at the ballot box because many local businesses and residents have come around to understanding the benefits outweigh the personal impacts that an increase would have on them.
“But we have to be able to prove it,” said Councilman Sajit Singh. “It has to be realistic.”
The city also hopes that outdoor cannabis operations approved for the north end of town eventually get up and running, which could generate about $250,000 a year to start and potentially grow to $750,000 annually, as the 10 acres are built out.
Meanwhile, city officials said they will continue to seek grant funding, which is much harder to secure than most people realize, and start doing what repairs and maintenance they can. ■