Relief ahead for several Yuma roads

Would residents be willing to pay tax to cover road needs?

With a little patience, Yuma drivers should see some relief on area roads.

At a recent Yuma City Council meeting, road improvements were up for discussion.

Five projects are scheduled for “imminent” construction, including 1st Avenue, Orange Avenue to 9th Street; 1st Avenue, 12th Street to 16th Street; 3rd Avenue, Orange Avenue to 14th Street; Gila Street, 1st Street to Giss Parkway; and Giss Parkway, 6th Street to Castle Dome Avenue (an Arizona Department of Transportation project).

Six projects are under design, with most of them planned for the spring and summer of 2019: 16th Street, Avenue B to C; 40th Street, Arizona Avenue to Avenue A; 4th Avenue, 32nd Street to 40th Street; Arizona Avenue, 32nd Street to 40th Street; Avenue A, 32nd Street to 36th Street; and 8th Street, Avenue C to Avenue D (Yuma County).

The exceptions are 8th Street, which is planned for construction in late spring or early summer of this year, and 4th Avenue, which the city anticipates will begin this summer.

Five projects are in the planning stage and will enter the design phase in 2020-21.

Now this is all good news for Yuma drivers, as our roadways are overdue for some TLC.

However, it will take money to pay for these projects, and finding those funds can be tricky, forcing leadership to examine every penny to figure out how to best allocate existing resources.

And that’s where the council conversation got especially interesting.

Council member Edward Thomas mentioned that other Arizona cities are raising funds for road repairs through a one-cent tax, commenting, “I’m just thinking out loud here, but with a one-cent tax here locally, how far would that go locally to pave our roads or even just get them up to snuff?”

To which City Administrator Greg Wilkinson replied said tax would generate $20 million a year.

The city has faced challenges funding road repairs because the state has repeatedly swept the Highway User Revenue Funds from cities and counties, which were intended to help with road repairs. That move left cities and counties scrambling to fill the void.

Ideally, the state would restore all the dollars that have been swept.

But in the meantime, officials have to find other revenue sources — hence this exploratory question about a one-cent tax. The question is, readers, would you support the one-cent tax if the funds were dedicated to road repairs in Yuma? Let us know. Share your thoughts online at www.YumaSun.com, or send us a Letter to the Editor at letters@yumasun.com.