Our View: Focus should be on streets

The Green River City Council needs to focus more on funding streets.

Anyone driving down Flaming Gorge Way, especially near the Green River Police Department, can talk about how uneven the street has become.

Other streets are in dire need of resurfacing too, some much more than Flaming Gorge Way.

We hope newly-elected members of the council will remember what they’ve said about streets during their candidate forum last month.

Many of the candidates agreed that streets need funding and said they support another sixth-penny improvements tax to help bring the city back in line with its street improvements plan.

However, while the sixth-penny tax is an important tool to fund streets and other infrastructure replacement projects, we think the council should also devote more city funds to the cause as well.

We realize the city’s budget is ill suited to take on the complete needs Green River’s streets have, yet an effort by the city using its own funds and whatever grant money it can find would go a long way in both illustrating the need to replace some city streets, but also that the money the city has isn’t enough to cover every street.

Yes, Green River’s revenues are on the upswing when compared to the past several years. While this has enabled the city to hire additional positions and fund some needed expenditures, the amount is nowhere near the funds needed to completely catch the city up on its maintenance schedule.

As much as residents would probably not want think about it, the sixth-penny improvements tax is the only avenue available for the city to get caught up on its maintenance plan.

With 2020 being the next possible year for a sixth-penny tax ballot initiative, the city has two choices: not spend money, get behind and wait for the tax initiative to place streets as a priority or spend some money, don’t fall as behind as they would otherwise and place streets projects on the ballot initiative.

We would like to see more work done on city streets, but we understand the limitations city government has on maintaining those streets. However, this is the time for newly-elected council members to uphold the words they’ve said during their campaigns and work to improve what city streets Green River can afford to pay for.