Tuesday night, the West Point Selectmen’s meeting turned into something of a shouting match, so much so that mayor Robbie Robinson had to use his gavel to restore order, quite a departure for West Point where city business is generally conducted in a polite, calm manner.
The subject that caused this departure from decorum is revealing: street paving.
There are few things that will raise the ire of citizens more than potholes. Good streets are pretty high up the list, up there with police and fire and sanitation services.
But as we have seen previously in both Columbus and Starkville, street paving is not considered a regular recurring need.
Rather than build a funding mechanism into city budgets, officials instead issue bonds every five to 10 years to address paving. In almost every case, the money generated by the bonds is not sufficient to address all the paving issues, which means city officials have to parcel out the funds — addressing some street conditions, but not others.
That is, of course, a sure recipe for disagreements.
West Point has borrowed $2.1 million for street paving and improvement projects. Tuesday, the order of business was to determine how to spend it. A little over $1.5 million will go to improvement in major thoroughfares. The plan presented Tuesday was to divide the remaining funds among the city’s five wards, which in many cases is considered the path of least resistance. Everybody gets a piece of the pie, the thinking goes.
The push-back came from Ward 3 Selectman Ken Poole, who asked the city to divert an additional $144,000 which he said is needed to pave the roads in the Deerfield subdivision, which is also where Poole lives.
Since the borrowed funds are essentially split between the five wards, one or more of Poole’s fellow selectmen would have to give up a portion of their own slice of the pie.
The debate is the natural byproduct of what happens when a city lacks a consistent, cohesive strategy for addressing paving issues on a city-wide basis. This paper has taken a similar stance with Columbus’ allocation of infrastructure bonds: Rather than dividing money equally by ward, West Point should maintain a list of the greatest road needs and address them systematically — regardless of ward.
If your boat was sinking, wouldn’t you want to plug the biggest holes first?
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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