Letter to the Editor
February 24, 2015
February 24, 2015
For the past several years, the Southington Town Council and our
Management Team have been transforming the delivery of services to our taxpayers. Our goal is to provide the best quality services for a responsible and
reasonable cost.
One of the largest costs in our community is maintaining the
infrastructure of our roads and bridges. The large cost of roads is why the
Town Council initiated a pavement management system to grade the quality of our
roads. Our grading system is used by our engineers as a tool to determine
which roads get a maintenance program and which roads get rebuilt.
When the voters approved 2 consecutive referenda totaling
$ 22 million dollars, they sent a clear message to “take care
of our roads”. As many have witnessed this past year, the massive road projects
have begun.
Last year, we added a new maintenance program aimed at giving longevity
to our existing roads and saving the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
As with items on one’s own home, if they aren’t
maintained, they will not last. The first maintenance product used last year
was Crack Sealing and the second was Chip Sealing.
With the process being less than 1 year old, we are gathering
results and feedback after the process has lived through its 1st winter. The
results are definitely a mixed bag of opinions encompassing both ends of the
spectrum.
This Town Council is committed to seeking out new and improved
ways to deliver high quality services at a reasonable cost. We are extremely
thankful for all of the feedback, positive and negative, on our new program.
This past month both management and leadership on the Council have been meeting
to review the processes with the goal of improving them this coming spring. We
are meeting with our own engineers, asphalt advisers and our contractors.
In the coming weeks we will be sharing our (residents) feedback
about the chip seal process with the contractors, to see if the process can be
improved. In the event that we are not satisfied that it can be improved, we
have the ability to seek other products that will satisfy our goal of
maintaining our roads to give them longevity. The other processes available are
Scrub Sealing, Micro-surfacing, Ultra-Thin Overlay (Nova Chip) and Slurry
Sealing. Each process has its pro’s and con’s.
As the concept of road maintenance, on a large scale, is new,
there will be adjustments based on what our citizens can support. We continue
to ask our residents for their feedback as many of them are on the front lines
with newly maintained roads. We will use that feedback and our experts, to
constantly improve the process. If that means replacing one maintenance process
for another, then we can do that. Please know that we hear you, good and bad,
and we are working to make our program the best that it can be, while being
prudent with your money.
Thank you
Michael A. Riccio, Chairman
Southington Town Council
