http://rutlandherald.com/article/20141224/NEWS02/712249920
Published December 24, 2014 in the Rutland Herald
Bumps in Springfield’s roads under complete analysis
By SUSAN SMALLHEER
Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD — Close to 25 percent of all the paved roads in town are in such poor condition they need to be reconstructed from the bottom up, engineer Everett Hammond told the Springfield Select Board on Monday. Another 20 percent need costly rehabilitation and another 30 miles of road need preventative treatment, he said.
Hammond, a Springfield resident and chairman of the town’s budget advisory committee, was hired earlier in the year to do a Road Surface Management System analysis of all the roads in town.
Hammond, who is a private consulting engineer and former public works director in the town of Rockingham, went through his detailed study for the Select Board, which recommended a big jump in town spending on its roads.
The Select Board took no action on Hammond’s report, but Chairman Kristi Morris and Selectman George McNaughton said the report deserved a detailed discussion during upcoming budget talks.
Hammond’s report calls for road reconstruction and paving to increase by $100,000 a year to $600,000 until it reaches $1 million a year, with a 5 percent increase annually after that.
The town currently spends $500,000 a year on both paving and road reconstruction.
Hammond, in a PowerPoint presentation, showed the Select Board which paved roads were in the worst shape, which could be rehabilitated, which needed preventative treatment and which needed no maintenance.
In the latter category there were only 15.78 miles of the town’s 85.81 miles of paved roads.
Hammond’s $12,000 contract to come up with the road evaluation also will include an assessment of the town’s dirt roads.
Hammond’s report, which included numerous photographs to illustrate just how bad the town’s roads are, was conducted with the help of John Johnson, the town’s highway superintendent.
Hammond said that he and Johnson traveled virtually all of the town’s roads to assess their condition. He said they took into account the roughness of the road, its condition, the amount of traffic on the road, and its importance to the road network.
“This RSMS evaluation is a snapshot in time of the condition of Springfield’s roads to be used a tool for future planning,” Hammond said.
Retired Town Manager Robert Forguites said that Hammond was awarded the RSMS road analysis job in a competitive bid process. He said the contract was for about $12,000.
Morris said after Hammond’s presentation that it was clear the town had deferred investment in the roads to avoid raising taxes. He said the town is already facing a potential 6-cent tax rate increase in the proposed municipal budget.
Hammond’s report, which was based on both Maine and New Hampshire local roads studies, urged that the town “use money as efficiently as possible... and make repair decisions based on road surveys.”
“Avoid ‘worst first’ methodology,” he added.
RE: Hammond, a Springfield resident and chairman of the town’s budget advisory committee, was hired earlier in the year to do a Road Surface Management System analysis of all the roads in town.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the article goes on to report that it was a "competitive bid" process, this still smells of cronyism. What we're not told is exactly what criteria were used to determine the winning bid. Was it the lowest price? Or was it some "best value" concoction that thereby favored the insider?
RE: Hammond’s report, which included numerous photographs to illustrate just how bad the town’s roads are, was conducted with the help of John Johnson, the town’s highway superintendent.
Hammond said that he and Johnson traveled virtually all of the town’s roads to assess their condition.
Why was a contractor even required for this study if the “town’s highway superintendent” was involved in the study? Why couldn’t this assessment have been performed internally utilizing existing staff and thereby save the town $12,000?
Yet again, Springfield’s municipal government demonstrates that it’s not really interested in responsible stewardship of town funds. In your face, taxpayers!
that would be the town office getting sick of phone calls ,that's why they plow a 1/4 of snow
DeleteMr. H belongs to the "Good Boys" club in both S'field and BF.
DeleteHere's a thought: Maybe if the public works department stopped plowing the roads when it only snows 1/4" it might have some additional money for paving. There have been times when they have plowed more than once after a 1/4" of snow.
ReplyDeleteI will not vote for a town budget which has excessive amounts of money relegated to public works. I would vote for a budget that will address the continuing nosedive that Springfield is in. The downtown area of Springfield is simply shameful and embarrassing. And you combine that with the excessive amount of residents who are sex offenders, drug addicts, or just simply of the low-life elk, and there is very little reason to live here as it is. It is not as if taxes are currently low in Springfield. The selectboard should be very careful in their budget proceedings, or else the exodus of even remotely middle class people will continue.
Who listens to town employees? If Johnson had done it all by himself and presented exactly the same evidence that he and Hammond did, "Anonymous" would be whining on these pages that it was just a ploy to get more money for the department.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that infrastructure costs money, and we are loathe to spend it. We want to believe that the roads that were surfaced in our youth will last forever, and that a 1.5% average expenditure on infrastructure is going to suffice forever.
Well, we are wrong.
the select board has been cutting the paving budget for years
DeleteThanks for more shovel ready leftist rhetoric, 8:56.
DeleteThe faucet is dripping again with the rusty rants of a frustrated and failed leftist apologist trapped in the crevices of his own narrow mind. Having contributed to the town's tailspin, and virtually cheered it on in the process with increasing advocacy for increased spending on costly, unproductive, and wasteful liberal nonsense, he is now stooping to having to rationalize further wasteful spending of tax dollars for the absurd purpose of restoring the lost credibility of town government and its employees.
Once again, in true left-wing propagandist fashion, the dripping faucet is advocating flushing more of the taxpayers’ dollars down the drain. In essence, if a government's employees lack the credibility and integrity to be heard, then the dripping faucet’s all for allowing them to spend more of the taxpayers’ dollars just so that somebody, anybody, will listen to them.
Maybe if the town's government had not compromised its integrity and credibility through years of hapless and ineffective management of the of town affairs, taxpayers would have the confidence to support its budgetary proposals. But as this latest little episode of waste has underscored, restoring that confidence in taxpayers is a long, long way off.
Caveat emptor!
I think you really need to watch more Fox News. . .
DeleteLOL. It seems your thimble full of knowledge is tapped out!
DeleteOnce, just once, I would love to see all the complainers put their names on a ballot and run for office. I suppose it's easier for them to hide behind the name "Anonymous" and gripe. Until they stand up in public and offer sound ideas, they're part of the problem and have precious little to do with being part of the solution.
ReplyDeleteRay, Ray, Ray. . .
DeleteThey're just letting the world know that they're the best Springfield has to offer! We wouldn't want them to go off message, would we?
Ray, why is an articulate, anonymous post any less valid than your own?
ReplyDeleteYou may be rather surprised who in the community participates here. I could be your physician or employer.
But your not... your a person who knows how to use a thesaurus and plagiarize others. This blog is pure entertainment at best...it only keeps the ignorant from truly finding the facts...I find this all extremely funny...
DeleteCare to back up your allegations of plagiarism, 9:34? No? I didn't think so.
DeleteAs to your assertions that this site only keeps the ignorant from finding the facts, I think you just revealed your own ignorance (and bias)!
And your post wasn't even that entertaining, either!
Keep voting Democrat!
This is wonderful!!!! Americana at it's best. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteHappy holidays. If people aren't complaining they aren't happy, so Springfield must be full of happy people. HO HO HO!!
Chester resdent
Let's count how many "sound ideas" have been offered on these pages by one each Ray Lamire over the years... Hmmmm, that would be exactly ZERO. Sorry, Ray, but the "two cents" offered in these posts by others is worth just as much (if not more) than your own. And as 10:15 points out, there are numerous contributors far more accomplished than yourself who offer their voices of reason but simply don't desire to receive the petty condemnation that defenders of the status quo like you always respond with.
ReplyDeletethe above comment is just cowardly...
DeleteThe above comment is irrelevant.
DeleteThe negativity here is probably therapeutic. It's better for people to vent on this blog than to beat their wive. It is rather unfortunate, re: 10:15 that the professional and business leaders who post here feel it necessary to lead a Jekyll and Hyde existence. Maybe that would explain the allegations lodged here about the Springfield leadership.
ReplyDeleteFinally, Chuck, the one thing you have so much experience with - therapy (or perhaps that's too lofty to credit you with - it's more like counseling)! Unfortunately for you, it hasn't gone well on either side - giving or receiving.
DeleteLeave it to you to label and minimize the constructive criticisms offered on these pages as mere venting. And, as well, to transfer the behaviors that you seem most familiar with from the likes of you and your clientele onto the posters here. But that's the typical left-wing tactics that those of your ilk invoke when an argument is lost. Ignore validity and resort to perfidy!
As for your metaphorical reference to the characters Jekyll and Hyde, you are misapplying it. Rather than attribute it to the honorable posters to this site, you should be assigning it to the failings of Springfield itself - a town that has fallen from the respectability and success of its Dr. Jekyll years into the dark and foul shadows of a Mr. Hyde existence.
The most unfortunate aspect of it all, however, is how quickly folks like you not only rolled out the Welcome Wagon for Mr. Hyde, but seemingly volunteered to do his bidding and became his ardent apologists in such a way that has resulted in him taking up permanent residency in Springfield.
What's next on your liberal agenda, naming Mr. Hyde Springfield's Citizen of the Year?
Could you point out the constructive criticisms offered in this thread, 12:34?
DeleteWhat public school system did you graduate from?
DeleteOkay, no constructive criticisms identified on this thread. Can you point out any offered on other threads?
DeleteDodging the question, eh? Typical...
DeleteChuck for President! Chuck for President! Chuck for President!
ReplyDeleteChuck's constant Liberal blogging on this site are exactly the reason I won't and encourge others not to sign any petition the he begs folks to sign while leaving the poles!
ReplyDeleteWell, the reason Communism will never take root in America, as John Steinbeck pointed out, is that the poor do not think of themselves as oppressed, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
DeleteI will never get a signature from a temporarily embarrassed millionaire, and I thank you for steering them away, 12:57.
At the very least, 12:57 should be grateful to Chuck for not pointing out that voters don't leave the "poles," they leave the "polls."
Delete