12/06/2019
2019 REPORT CARD for BREWSTER STREETS
Funding Street Improvements:
At the Polls on November 8, 2016 Brewster Voters approved a 0.5% Municipal Income Tax measure that will be effective from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2021. This Municipal Income Tax will provide additional revenues for the operation of the Village Police Department and for the maintenance of Village roadways. Estimates in 2016 showed that an additional $400,000 would be gained annually from this new Income Tax, and of that amount $ 240,000 would go toward Street maintenance (60%) and $ 160,000 for the operation of the PD (40%).
In 2018 the tax revenue received from the 0.3% income tax for Village street maintenance was $299,000.16 and of that amount $ 240,999.96 was used to rebuild, prepare, and pave Village streets that included Willow Street, Park Drive, and both sides of the Veteran’s Boulevard, as well as Tuscarawas, Needham, North Jackson, and Oak Streets.
In 2019 through the Village used its funds to leverage State and Stark County funding. In 2019 the Brewster Street Program was even more substantial as the following will show:
• A Seventh Street Paving & Improvement Project was completed utilizing an Ohio Public Works Commission grant of $ 111,475 and $ 128,525 from Brewster Income Tax Funds. This total was in addition to $ 35,700 utilized for the installation of 850 lineal feet of curb and gutter and two handicap ramps on Seventh Street E. funded by Street Improvement Fund.
• Elton Street East was prepared and paved using a grant from Stark County Municipal Road Fund Program in the amount of $ 82,821.
• Brewster Income Tax funds were expended for the preparation and paving of Scioto Street, Sixth Street SW from Wabash to McKInley, Bimiler Street SW from Wabash to McKInley, Fourth Street SW from Washington to Lincoln, Harmon Street from Scioto to Muskingum, a partial repair of both Church and Chestnut Streets and two alleys serving the Downtown area, all at a cost of under $ 128,000.
• All together from the OPWC grant, the Stark County Municipal Road Fund Program, and Brewster Income Tax revenues nearly $ 456,000 funded the improvement of Brewster streets in 2019.
• In addition, the Village Street Department undertook and completed the replacement and addition of storm catch basins and storm sewer piping at several strategic spots in the Village. One of those sites was a new catch basin system at Seventh and Jefferson which plays into the completed Seventh Street Paving Project as well as an upcoming infrastructure project in that area.
Brewster Road Maintenance Plan
The Goal: Our goal is to utilize the available funds each year to ultimately resurface every Village street at a rate of once every 15 years, as well as to use those revenues to incorporate treatments such as crack sealing and slurry seal during each street’s maintenance period to extend the asphalt life of the roadway to accomplish the 15 year interval. This approach is similar to that used by the Ohio Department of Transportation. In our Northeast Ohio weather, an asphalt street should normally last untreated 10 to 12 years. By applying treatments such as crack sealing and slurry seal at the appropriate time we can extend the life of asphalt roads by 30% to 50 % - approximately 15 years.
Assessment of Current Road Conditions (Triage): In 2016 the Village Administrator contracted for a formal assessment of the condition of the Village’s roads by a reliable engineering firm that used a Pavement Condition Index. The Pavement Condition Index is an inventory and assessment of the current condition of streets and is used by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to assess their roads and is an accepted methodology nationwide. ODOT does their condition ratings each year. ODOT has a manual that standardizes the process, which they have provided for the Village’s use. This inventory and assessment puts the Village in a position to determine the priority for which streets need to be resurfaced (milled and filled or micro-resurfaced), crack sealed, or other treatments to extend their life prioritized on a worst condition first.
Planning: For planning the 2020 Brewster Street Program the Village Administrator will again use an outside firm to inventory and assess (Pavement Condition Ratings) all Village streets. This will update the current Pavement Condition Ratings of Village streets to provide an appropriate list of roadways to be paved in 2020 with available Municipal Income Tax dollars. Already on tap in 2020 is an East Main Street Paving and Rehabilitation Project with an engineer’s estimated cost of $ 103,000. This project on Main Street between Cleveland Avenue and Park Drive will reduce this section of roadway to thirty feet in width, curb the south edge of the street, and provide new asphalt. This ambitious Project is partially funded by the Ohio Public Works Commission Grant of up to $ 51,964.00 with the Brewster Street Income Tax funding the difference. In addition, in the Spring of 2020 the Ohio Department of Transportation will pave Wabash Avenue (SR 93) from Harmon Street working South through Brewster to the intersection of SR93 and SR62 south of Brewster.
