Road Repairs – Who should lead us?

I received a postcard from Mr. Vavrek’s campaign saying that because he repaired some roads, we should vote for him. However, I would suggest that there is more to the idea of road maintenance than how many miles were fixed and people need to look at other details. 

To start with, it was the people of Monroe, including me, that turned out to vote for the $2.2 million bond authorization, as well as all those who voted for the 2011-12 operating budget which contained another $400,000 that provided Mr. Vavrek the financial resources necessary to do the work. 

It therefore follows that if we provide a Phyllis Kansky administration with the same level of financial support we will see the same results as far as repairs are concerned. So that means we should look to other factors when deciding who to vote for if we care about roads being fixed. 

During the First Selectman debate held at Masuk High School, Mr. Vavrek said to look at his First Selectman’s Journals to see his record. The following two paragraphs are from the October 2010 First Selectman’s Journal, sent out to his list serve on Oct 30, 2010: 

"Right now we are deep into year one. Town Council, the Board of Finance and you the voter have made repairs possible through your support of the First Selectman’s request for 2.2 million dollars in the form of a ten year bond. Going forward the plan will be to add money to our paving budget line item at the rate of $100,000, minimum, per year until we have an annual paving line item of one million dollars. This will leave Monroe in a position where there will no longer be a need to bond (borrow) money to pave and maintain roads."

"We plan to continue to bond approximately 2 million dollars each year for up to 10 years. Bonding is needed to catch us up on previous years of neglected road work. Bonding is not our preferred method of financing road work and our commitment to annually increasing the paving line item shows we are committed to bond only what is necessary. The plan laid out for us now will leave Monroe with all 134 miles of roads repaired and an annual paving budget adequate to maintain our roads in a safe condition. No further bonding will be needed as long as Monroe’s leaders leave the paving line item sufficiently funded."

Note that he said that the plan would be to add money to the operating budget at "the rate of $100,000, minimum, per year". This is a statement that he failed to fulfill when he added only $ 50,000 with his proposed 2011-12 budget just four months after making this statement. Because he failed to add the full $100,000 (or more), he has already fallen behind in his own plan to build the operating budget up to $1,000,000. 

He says in the second paragraph, "our commitment to annually increase the paving line item shows we are committed to bond only when necessary", yet by not adding the full $100,000 to the operating budget for 2011-12 it means that we may have to borrow more money over time. It also calls into question if he is serious about reducing bonding for roads. 

He says "Bonding is not our preferred method of financing road work…", yet he has failed to provide any plan to move us away from bonding for at least the next 9 years (10 year plan with 1 year now complete). Furthermore, Mr. Vavrek has failed to provide any long range funding plan so we don’t actually know what he is planning to spend each year, what estimates he is using for interest rates over time, and what roads (or how many miles of roadway) he is expecting to fix each year. He has also put off the next bonding request until after the election. 

Even the Monroe Courier in its recent editorial stated "Vavrek must now start shifting more roadwork costs to the operating budget." This is the Phyllis Kansky position! 

It is important to understand that bonding for $22-plus million dollars of road work will result in millions of dollars in interest payments that we will have to pay and this additional money paid by the taxpayers will not result in a single pound of additional asphalt or a single yard of additional road repair. 

I think that the voters of Monroe should also consider the transparency, or lack there of, of the entire road management program under Mr. Vavrek.  We have a $22 million program and the study document is not posted on the web for the citizens to review. Neither is the contract with the management company. Neither is the multi-year financial plan.  Neither is there a summary showing what has been spent so far, which roads have been done, what was done to each road, what the cost was for each road, how the pavement condition index was changed (improved) and how long the repair should last before additional work will be required. 

Mrs. Kansky is committed to providing openness and transparency. Mrs. Kansky has expressed concerns over the no-bid contract to the management company.  Mrs. Kansky has maintained that bonding is not the way to finance the long term road repair needs of the town. 

Mrs. Kansky deserves the opportunity to lead us on this important long term project.