2026 Paving Update
I want to give you an update on our 2026 paving progress. I believe most of our citizens would agree that paving our roads has been an area that needs improvements. Last spring as we began to look at our budget I met with our Public Works department to review our paving situation.
Our Public Works department does a great job tracking the condition of our roads and the required paving to maintain our roads properly. Unfortunately, the funding provided to Public Works to accomplish needed paving had not kept track with inflation in asphalt and labor expenses.
It turns out that the lifespan of a road paving before it needs to be repaved is approximately 14-18 years. Based on that requirement, if we are to keep all of our city roads paved every 18 years, the current annual cost is about $1.5 million dollars. Unfortunately, for several years previous to that our spending had been a little less than half the required amount.
Based on this finding, the Board of Mayor and Alderman implemented an increase of the property tax rate of 20 cents, with 15 cents of that earmarked for the paving and the remaining 5 cents being set aside for future work on repairing or replacing our city hall. That allowed us to increase our paving budget to $1.5 million which we did.
I'm proud to say that at this time our public works department has spent over 99 percent of that money on paving roads this year. The decision of which roads to pave is based on a combination of the current state of the road, the predicted traffic on the road, and trying to perform some paving in all four quadrants of the city. The board approved the public works recommended list last August. Click the arrow below to see a detailed dropdown list of the paving that was accomplished this year.
2026 Completed Paving
- Anderson – Lincoln to Carroll
- Old Estill – Chamberlin to City Limits
- Atlantic at Hogan (Intersection Stops)
- Atlantic at Lauderdale (Intersection Stops)
- Popular Alley – Grundy to Lincoln
- Chandell Airpark
- Reagan – Lincoln to Bel Air
- Noblitt – Lincoln to Bel Air
- Mann Street
- Comerford Street
- Lee Street – Circle Drive to Bel Air
- South Polk – Carroll to Volney
- Jerry Street – Lincoln to Grundy
- Redbud – Crestwood to Bragg
- Leona – Helen to Broadrick
- Davidson – Astrid to Brown
- Astrid – Washington to Davidson
- Franklin – Waggner to City Limits
- Ham Street – N. Anderson to Lincoln
- West Lake Place – Blue Lake to Cul-de-sac
- Blue Lake Drive – Lincoln to Dead End
- Blue Ridge Avenue – Lincoln to Blue Lake Drive
- Hunters Ridge Drive – Ovoca Lake to Cul-de-sac
- Hunters Court – Hunters Ridge to Cul-de-sac
- Quail Drive
- Kensington – Kings Ridge to Cul-de-sac
- Castle Walk – Kings Ridge to Dead End
- Chadsworth – Castle Walk to Dead End
Paving for 2027
We do not yet have the proposed list for next year, but we are planning ahead for the budget. We again have $1.5 million for paving in our proposed budget so we can continue making progress on our road improvements. If you have suggestions about roads you think are in need or repair or repaving for next year you can send a note to the city at our Citizens Comment Center.
Maintaining our roads is one of the biggest responsibilities and expenses our city has. This is a priority for me as mayor. We are fortunate to have a great Public Works Department that handles our paving contracts in a professional, fair manner. I look forward to more improvements in the coming year!
