Potholes or Potties?

So once again Amherst town officials hoodwinked the Gazette. Today’s editorial effort (one of three, so I guess it would constitute an editorial lite) regarding the pothole situation in overly enlightened Amherst seems to have bought hook line and sinker the prospect that the town actually ran out of money in the pothole repair budget and as a result let most of the town resemble the Navy Vieques testing range.

The REAL STORY is the DPW was kept busy in the downtown this spring constructing a sidewalk and is STILL preoccupied at South Amherst’s Groff Park “comfort station” (outhouse, potty place, bathroom, restroom, toilet).

Most cities and towns in Massachusetts contract out those kinds of construction projects to the private sector freeing up the public DPW to concentrate on more basic services like potholes, water/sewer repair, and pruning trees.

When the town manager informed the Select board on May 31’st that the hot patch budget had gone ice cold we were still in FY07 and last year at the start of FY07 with no talk of an Override the last thing anyone worried about was potholes or snow and ice removal (another prime DPW function).

So the failure of the Override at the May 1’st Special Election, that cost taxpayers $12,000…enough to fill all the potholes in town on May 2’nd, is clearly connected; like two BIG DOTS (or potholes).
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Daily Hampshire Gazette Friday, June 29, 2007
In Our Opinion: Worth noting
In a financial rut
There's been a lot of talk about the problems towns and cities in Massachusetts are having tending to their basic responsibilities because of tight budgets and inadequate state aid. One good example occurred recently in Amherst, which had to cobble together money from different accounts simply to fix the numerous potholes in town.

It first appeared that Amherst might not have sufficient money in its pothole fund to smooth out the city's roads. The problem was averted, though, when Guilford Mooring, the city's superintendent of public works, said he had discovered additional money for road improvements in some capital accounts.

The problem is that money won't always be waiting, tucked away in other accounts, the next time the road repair budget runs dry in Amherst. The problem isn't limited to Amherst, either; other communities in the Pioneer Valley have found it difficult in recent years to come up with sufficient funding to pay for road projects.

A reliable road system is essential for economic development. Road maintenance will continue to pose a challenge as residential and commercial development continues throughout the Valley. Even the state is facing a pinch; it's estimated that Massachusetts faces a nearly $20 billion shortfall for roads, bridges and other transportation projects across the state.

Former New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato used to jokingly call himself "Senator Pothole" - a reference to the importance of tending to the basic concerns of local communities, such as road improvements. It's clear there's something wrong when the state and local communities cannot tend to such basic responsibilities as road repairs. This is a conversation that's long overdue. Amherst may have been lucky this time around in finding the additional money for road repairs, but it would be a mistake for anyone to assume this problem is just going to fix itself.