City looks at road, water main repairs

Discussion on top streets, borrowing money for pipes

Road repairs and water main replacements are on the list of upcoming projects in Vermilion.

City Council has talked about both issues this year, especially in committee meetings July 10 and on Aug. 14, continued discussion in its committee meetings.

As a result, street repairs around Vermilion could begin sooner each year — if Council can move up its planning process.

Council’s Streets, Buildings and Grounds Committee aims to make a prospective list of road projects earlier each year with the goal of getting construction started in the spring.

As a result, committee Chairman Jim Forthofer on Aug. 14 asked fellow Council members to review criteria for judging the streets most in need of repair.

The goal is for Council members in October to make suggestions for streets to fix, for discussion in November and December.

The goal is to get a workable list to the city engineer and finance director to create proposals in those months for the road work.

Once that happens, Council could authorize road projects in January. That allows the city to advertise for contractors to begin work in the spring.

In past years, Council began the street deliberations in February of the year, with bidding in June and work completed by late summer.

Council members Fred Ostrander of Ward 1, Barb Brady of Ward 4 and Brian Holmes of Ward 5, along with Forthofer of Ward 1 and Loucka of Ward 2, would submit streets in their respective wards.

At-Large Member Monica Stark and Council President Steven Herron would recommend streets from around the entire city.

Road repairs — and the city’s lack of money for them — have been perennial troubles for Vermilion Council and the city administration.

Forthofer and Loucka worked with City Engineer Lynn Miggins, Service Director Tony Valerius and Finance Director Brian Keller to create the rubric, or method of judging the streets.

Forthofer also credited resident Neal Norris, who suggested creating the rubric and who worked with the Streets, Buildings and Grounds Committee to do so.

Loucka noted Vermilion has about 214 streets running about 61 miles in Lorain and Erie counties.

He said it could be helpful to build a central database of files on every street, listing characteristics such as the pavement type and when it was last repaired.

“To me it’s like trying to grab Jell-O around here on getting an idea of the streets,” Loucka said. “If we at least could build this, this would make this type of rubric a lot easier to work with.”

Meanwhile, Keller recommended Council’s Finance Committee consider financial projections to address the city’s borrowing capacity for a 25year water main replacement project.

Keller said his recommendation is for the Committee and Council to consider borrowing up to $2.5 million, at 2.9 percent interest, to be repaid with $141,000 a year over 25 years.

Council’s Finance Committee on July 10 discussed the issue. On Aug. 14, the Finance Committee received at least eight pages of projected revenues and expenses.

“It’s a lot of information, a lot of numbers, but that’s my world,” Keller said.

Borrowing money for an aggressive replacement plan is a good idea, Forthofer said.

But if Vermilion borrows that money, he said he is concerned whether the city water fund would cover the inevitable breaks that will happen in the rest of the water system.

Brady also had questions about the formulas to determine projected revenues and expenses.

Stark, the committee chairwoman, suggested the Council members review the figures and return for more deliberations next month.