Spring street problems cropping up throughout Havre, funds limited

A section of Bullhook Road on the south end of Havre is not alone in being riddled with mounds, potholes and cracked pavement, a city official said Thursday.

Havre Director of Public Works Dave Peterson said his crew will look at the condition of the section of Bullhook Road, likely patch it and then see what they can do in terms of funds to fix it. However, Bullhook Road is far from the only street in such condition, he said.

"We are starting to see different spots like this all over town," he said.

Water from the snowpack and rain of autumn and early winter collected and froze up under the asphalt, Peterson said. As the weather warmed up, the shift in temperatures pushes up and fractures the street.

Peterson said, given his department's small budget, the city is limited in how it can address the problem of the further deterioration the city's antiquated streets.

"It's just the roads are getting old, and we don't have the funding to take care of all of it," he said.

The budget of the Department of Public Work's comes from two sources, money generated from the state gas tax, which has not been raised since the 1990s, and the street maintenance fund the department receives from the city.

Peterson said the city receives about $170,000 annually from the state gas tax, but that often goes toward maintaining equipment and other expenses such as sand, gravel and asphalt. The street maintenance fund is used to patch up streets but also goes toward the operation of the city's street sweeper and snow removal, he said.

That leaves little left for long-range solutions such as redoing roads, he added.

"We don't get funds to rebuild streets," Peterson said. "We kind of go in and do what we can when we have things come up."

Sometimes the city is able to do more work on the streets, but with the exception of highways, state funding for infrastructure usually don't go toward city streets, he said. Instead they are mostly aimed at restoring water and sewer systems, which also usually need to be fixed when the streets are in need of repair.

The city tried to get additional money through a mill levy for the upgrade of streets as well as water and sewer systems, some of which were constructed in the 1920s and '30s. A $30 million mill levy for city infrastructure was rejected in the 2015 election.

A slimmed down proposal was later discussed by the Havre City Council which opted not to place it on the ballot in 2016.

Havre City Clerk Doug Kaercher said this morning that the council is waiting to see what the 2017 Legislature does for funding infrastructure construction and repair before it decides what action it should take.