Council hears road woes

LIBERTY LAKE – And you thought the fireworks only happened on the Fourth of July at Liberty Lake?

Dozens of upset Highland subdivision residents descended on City Hall Tuesday night to protest a recent street resurfacing project both they and city officials contend is far from the advertised improvement.

In testimony that lasted nearly an hour at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Community Development Director Doug Smith, who approved the project, stood at the podium and heard protest after protest.

Meanwhile, Mayor Steve Peterson toyed with his gavel from time to time, in case there was a need to quiet the crowd, which had to be reminded not to simply shout out comments, but to provide names for the official record.

Smith and Peterson took responsibility for what residents see as a botched project. Both vowed to work with citizens and do their best to undo the admitted mistake. Virtually everyone in attendance said the recent chip-seal resurfacing has now made a total mess of what they thought were perfectly good streets.

At the end of the heated discussion, Peterson urged the residents and city officials to be sure to sign in and make themselves available to meet and come up with a solution.

If the mess on Mitchell Drive hadn’t previously gotten the city’s attention it did Tuesday. “I hear your concerns,” Smith said. “The project missed its mark,” he admitted, adding “we’re taking measures to address that.”

Those include new test strips at the end of Valley Way that it is hoped will mitigate the roughness of the road.

The Highlands project moved ahead based on a demonstration project on Homestead Road in 2006. However, residents viewed the two as an apples-to-oranges comparison. Their project used a larger aggregate material that is not only significantly rougher, but also, they say, has not adhered to the old surface.

Smith said the resurfacing was done for about $100,000 where a brand new street would cost 10 times that much.

Still, residents like Shelly Dickinson are not convinced that the streets in the area needed anything done to them. “Where I live the road was fine,” she said.

Smith said one option would be to add a new layer of smaller aggregate to the street to fill in the gaps created by the larger rock.

Twenty-year Mitchell Drive homeowner Gary Myhre asked if adding more gravel was going to do any good. “We had a good road before,” Myhre explained. “Give us back our smooth road.”

Mary Anderson said the chip-seal “was made for county road, not subdivision.” She said during a recent heavy rain, oil was running down the side of the street. The project has lowered the value of our houses, she said, echoing comments heard from others.

Carol Martin, and others, complained about the “black stuff on carpets,” that will not come out.

James Wilson asked if an inspector was on duty to watch? Smith said there was no inspector and that the city relies on its contractors to police themselves.

Mayor Peterson said he rode his bike over to inspect the streets and, “find a way to get them fixed to our expectations.”

Peterson went on to invite affected residents, “four to five of you, to work as a group and put together an alternative.” Peterson went on to say, “we want to find a solution. Sit down and say how do we fix this?”