WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – You’ve seen them, you’ve tried to navigate them, you’ve probably even hit them. We’re talking about potholes.
In Watertown, they drive the frustration of Robert Snyder.
“I just called my car in for a realignment, and I had to get it readjusted because of the potholes. The one here on Arsenal Street on the right hand side. There’s one up on Washington Street. There’s some here on Prospect Street,” he said.
Every year, repairs are paid for through the city budget.
“We have about $700,000 allocated for projects. We’ve got seven different paving projects that were targeted for this fiscal year. Five of them are done, two of them will be done in the springtime,” said City Manager Ken Mix.
Other funds come from the state.
“A program that came out in the middle of our fiscal year, called the State Touring Routes Program, that’s providing us with another $2.2 million to do street repaving,” said Mix.
But with millions of dollars in federal funds pumping into the city through the American Rescue Plan Act, money to help the city make up for lost revenue due to COVID, could Watertown do more paving?
The answer is a little complicated. The city will get $22 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. Most of that money could be used to fix what’s under the roads – like water and sewer pipes – but not paving.
Of the $22 million, only $8 million can be spent on road maintenance. But, there’s a laundry list of projects vying for that money, like improving city hall, upgrading the public works building or preparing the city to deal with its next step in its hydro-electric contract with National Grid.
So, the rubber won’t meet the road for a while as city council figures out how to spend the federal COVID money.
In the meantime, the city says Grant and Gotham streets are next up to get paved once the weather warms up.
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