Summit officials took a hard look at street work Tuesday by meeting with an engineer to pinpoint where it’s needed and financial advisers to figure out how to pay for it.
Ryan Holmes of Dungan Engineering went over a list of streets during Tuesday night’s work session.
“This list is not set in stone. It’s up to y’all to decide what y’all want to do,” he said.
Officials should keep the fluctuating — and usually rising — cost of materials in mind, though, Holmes said.
“As we begin to work with y’all on whittling down this list to what you want it to be, we continue to refine the costs,” he said. “We see on a monthly basis what asphalt prices are doing, but obviously, like everything else, they’ve risen dramatically.”
Councilman Julius Nash asked about Enterprise Road.
“I know there is a lot of traffic on that road,” he said.
“The traffic count we have is high traffic,” Holmes said, adding that the road was listed in “fair condition.”
But Town Superintendent Tim Baylor clarified that the section of road Nash is concerned about is Oak Street Extension, which becomes Enterprise Road after crossing a small bridge.
“It’s failed,” Holmes said of that street, which has become rough after an accumulation of patch jobs that has resulted in a series of speed bump-seized humps.
Holmes said the town’s paving “wish list” covers 10 miles of road, but it’s doubtful the entire length of a lot of streets would get paved.
“We'll do complete streets where we can,” Holmes said. “Try to fix the really rough spots. You’re not going to pave the whole street but you can get the rough spots.”
Later in the meeting, Will McBeth of Watkins & Eager and Samuel Sarpong of Daylight Capital Advisers discussed the possibility of leveraging internet sales tax revenues against financing to pay for street repairs.
McBeth said that’s become common practice in Mississippi, where internet sales tax monies must be devoted to infrastructure.
“Typically we see towns use a certain percentage of that money that they get for street projects,” McBeth said.
He noted that Summit receives two $80,000 payments per year.
“If you wanted to use 25% of the internet sales tax, you’re looking at $285,000, if you wanted to use 50% of that, you’re kind of looking at $575,000 and if you wanted to use 75% of that then you’re close to $750,000,” Sarpong said.
He advised against devoting all of the proceeds to financing in case some of it is immediately needed.
In another matter, McBeth and Sarpong said they’re still trying to sell bonds in connection with the tax increment financing deal for the Lyle Machinery Development. Summit wants to devote half of the business’ sales and property tax revenues to repaying financing that would pay for infrastructure improvements that could foster nearby development.
Town officials learned last month that no banks offered to bid on the bond sale and that Lyle would be interested in securing the funding for the town to repay. The company has offered terms on a loan to be repaid at 8% interest over 15 years, and Daylight is making a counter offer.
“Of course, they’re trying to make money as well but we’re trying to do what’s in the best interest for the city of Summit,” DAYLIGHT said.
