Editorial: City should take its time on street plan

Life is often a matter of “hurry up and wait” with any number of subjects and in a wide array of circumstances. But in two issues currently before the Clarendon Board of Aldermen, city leaders need to both “hurry up” and “wait” but not at the same time.

Aldermen made good progress on an alcohol ordinance at last week’s regular meeting, and board members seemed to pretty well be in agreement when they adjourned. Now they are set to meet again next Tuesday to finalize the ordinance. As Clarendon Economic Development & Tourism Director Chandra Eggemeyer told the board, the sooner this is done, the sooner Clarendon will start seeing the benefit of last fall’s election.

To put it more simply, every day a local store can’t sell beer is a day they are losing money. City leaders need to forge ahead without delay next week, finish whatever rules they are going to adopt, and authorize City Hall to begin signing permit applications.

But on another issue – the pending street project, the city needs to take its time and act carefully. An alcohol ordinance can be amended in the future if needs to be, but street projects are long term investments. When done right – like our brick streets, they can serve the citizens for decades. When done wrong or hastily, citizens will likewise live with those decisions for a long time.

Any way you slice it, the street project has changed substantially from what former city administrator Lambert Little sold citizens when they voted. At that time there was no talk of narrowing streets, but now that’s what the plan calls for – reducing streets to 32 feet across mostly bordered by ribbons of concrete known as “rollover” curbs as opposed to full curb and gutter that we saw in the last project seven years ago.

Narrowing the streets is always done as a cost-saving measure, but city officials need to consider what that’s going to look like and exactly what the plan is. In the case of Third Street, the plan is to essentially ignore up to eight feet of currently paved street that will be behind the new rollover curb. People will still be able to park there, and the city will repave that area “later.” Unfortunately, “later” has a habit of never getting here.

In the last project, the city was going to go back and tie in cross streets like Allen, Sims, and others that were eliminated from the last plan to save money. That isn’t on the drawing board. We were also going to see Seventh and Fourth streets from Koogle going east paved. That isn’t being talked about. “Later” means “probably never.” If a future city council has an extra $50,000 to spend ten years from now, they aren’t likely to spend it behind a curb where someone is parking. Why not just keep the streets wider today and allow enough room to park on both sides of the street?

The city engineer admitted last week that he has never seen another city do what Clarendon is planning to do. We therefore have no idea what this is going to look like, but we can be sure that it won’t a proper street that might be seen in other communities.

Third Street in particular, again, is a major thoroughfare for local people and visitors to our city that connects downtown with Bronco Stadium and our beautiful college campus. When paved, it needs to be nothing less than professional and a source of pride.

The city also needs to think about timing. We’ve seen what a disaster occurred when the water and sewer project was going on during football season. It was a muddy, sloppy, embarrassing mess. And that will look like a walk in the park compared to what might happen if the street project isn’t finished before school starts.

City crews are intended to do all the dirt work for the curbing and all the base work for the streets. Our city workers have plenty to do without being tasked with staying ahead of a paving contractor, who could probably more efficiently do the job themselves. This isn’t to say our guys aren’t capable of doing base work. It’s simply pointing out that they already have fulltime jobs to do.

What thought, if any, has been given to how this project will impact activity around the ballparks this summer? What thought, if any, has been given to making sure this project is over and done with before school starts this fall so that we avoid the congestion and mess at Clarendon ISD that we’ve seen this school year?

And then there remains the idea of seal coating Clarendon Avenue and Regents Avenue on the college campus. How will the city time its work so that it doesn’t interfere with activities at the college this summer or, heaven help us, after classes start in the fall? All of Donley County pays taxes to Clarendon College to keep up maintenance on college property. The estimated $50,000 the city proposes to spend on the college campus is really and truly needed elsewhere to make sure that city streets are paved in the same professional manner that we see with the college streets.

The Board of Aldermen needs to takes its time on this. Ask the right questions. Get satisfactory answers, and above all, don’t be rushed. Clarendon will live with these streets for a long time. Let’s make sure we’re happy with what we’re getting and not just “poor boy” this deal for expediency and the sake of saving a buck.