Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

There is a bumpy road ahead for Wichita residents as the city slashes extra funds slated for street repairs. The cuts come as the city faces a bigger deficit than expected in this new economy.

One Riverside street definitely doesn't offer a smooth ride. Those who live along it say it hasn't been paved in years.

"They just patch it a little bit and then it gets bad again," said Resident Gil Oliva.

It's just one of several streets disintegrating city-wide. And the situation is only going to get worse now that the city has decided to use street maintenance money to close a $1 million budget gap.

So many streets are already in bad shape because the city only spends $6 million a year to fix them, $4 million less than what's needed to actually get the job done. This year the city added $2.5 million to the fund to try and catch up. Now that extra money is gone.

"It will affect a lot of the streets we planned on doing," said Wichita Public Works Director Chris Carrier. "It is disappointing but it's the economy."

The city isn't sure yet which streets will suffer from the cuts.

Some who live along bad streets understand.

"It would be great. It would be wonderful. It is on the wish list but I understand that things are tight," said Resident Courtney Darrah.

But Oliva is less understanding,"It's really bad because it's been delayed a long time already."

The city has a full $10 million budgeted for next year. But that number could change depending on the economy.