Improving our streets needed

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I am writing in support of our city’s proposed 0.15-percent income tax earmarked for street and transportation.

I don’t know when the last increase in the income tax occurred, but costs of materials, labor and equipment have increased more than revenues over the years, which directly relates to fewer streets paved and reduced maintenance to stay on budget.

As city engineer in Marietta, Ohio, for 18 years, I can attest to the community benefit that this proposed increase will provide. Voters in Marietta, in the early 1980s, approved an income tax increase of a similar amount earmarked for streets and it allowed for the paving of many more miles of streets, as well as leveraging state and federal transportation and Ohio Public Works fund dollars to improve the city’s arterial, collector and local access streets.

Generally this was an 20 percent city match for 80 percent federal or state funds. Many landslips affecting several streets were also repaired, something Delaware thankfully doesn’t have to address.

All local access streets still may not be able to be resurfaced as soon as we might like, but we need to realize that significantly more miles are driven on arterial and collector streets by each of us every day than the actual street you live on. However, we still get the benefit of more miles of improved streets that we do drive on regularly.

-Bob Badger

Delaware

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