KINGMAN – Kingman residents are rejoicing now that the community’s badly neglected road network is receiving attention. Long overdue street maintenance activity has improved driving conditions in portions of the city.
“It absolutely is very nice to see the progress and all the different areas within our community getting worked on,” said Vice-Mayor Cherish Sammeli. She said citizen road condition critics have been thanking city leaders and crews for filling potholes and improving streets.
“It’s so refreshing. We hear the good, the bad and the ugly and sometimes we hear the ugly more often than we hear the good,” Sammeli said. “So, any citizen that sees a road worker out there or a council member, please do thank them. They’re working hard.”
Assistant Public Works Director Jack Plaunty said chip sealing totaling 977,000 square yards of surface was completed in Oct. in an area defined as Residential District 1. He said Residential District 2 is targeted for crack sealing over 547,000 square yards beginning in Dec.
“The exact dates of the spring preservation cycle are being scheduled,” Plaunty said. “Additional press releases will provide updates before the start of the work.”
Sammeli said the city is still challenged to identify revenue streams to improve its street maintenance program.
“We are going into budget session a little bit earlier this year. Interim manager Grady Miller has asked that we start the process a little sooner,” she said. “These will be discussions that we will be having. We are spending some catch up money from before, and we did move over some reserves (funding) so we should be in a good spot for a few years.”
