Improving Spartanburg's Roads

[Spartan]

Score one for the good guys... the State Supreme Court upheld the legality of the $25 road fee. Hopefully this will shut Walter McSherry up over this issue, and let our county move on to more important matters.

[alias007]

As long as it really is used for roads, I'm all for it. I'd make a list of places that could be improved but it would seem a little silly. There's plenty of starting places. hehe

[alias007]

My previous post was poorly worded. I meant that making a list of potholes would seem a little silly, not a list of desired improvements. If I thought the latter I must be in the WRONG forum. lol

I guess the main improvement I'd like to see to the roads is making the 5-way stop on Belcher and Old John Dodd Rd into a 4-way stop. I always take people up Old Furnace Rd when I give directions to my house, even though it's longer. But I gave directions to 5 people through the 5-way stop when my wife and I first moved in. All 5 times they got lost. They either ended up at Ingles or back on Asheville Hwy.

I'd also like to see my money go towards destroying/rebuilding the old 1 lane bridges that are scattered everywhere. I get nervous everytime I come up to one. I just know there's going to be a car coming.

Finding a new solution for Heron circle would also be nice. Right now, people hardly use the left lane from either direction. That's no good. I'd like to see a better flow there.

[Spartan]

Yeah but remember when they dropped it to 1 lane a few years ago? It was more backed up then than it ever was. I honestly don't think there is a better solution than a traffic circle there. There are just to many roads coming together at one point to make anything else feasable unless you rework a lot of roadway.

I want to see Dairy Ridge Road repaired. The bridge is washed out, and the road itself is in horrible condition- though I think its the state-maintained section. Considering that it provides the primary access to Camp Croft, I think it should be a more presentable road.

I'm willing to bet that there are lots of roads in the northern and southern parts of the county that need repair and maintainence.

[Spartan]

Well, its back. Some candidates are bringing up the issue over the existence of the $25 road fee. And whats unusual from my perspective is that Councilman Rock Adams has is right this time. I will say that I don't often agree with the way Councilman Adams represents Spartanburg County, but in this instance he is dead on. In fact, you will note that all of the council members who ran on a platform of removing the $25 road fee and said it is ruining lives or whatever, have not said one thing about it since they were elected. Any thoughts on why? Maybe its because the money is being used to repair county roads and bridges that are literally falling apart.

HJ Article

[Spartan]

And the saga continues. It looks as though County Council will address this issue in January, when the newly elected Councilmembers take over. It seems that most of them, except for the Chairman Horton have expressed some sort of discontent towards the $25 fee. Given the amount of road work that needs to be done, I hope that they will either 1) keep the fee or 2) increase it. Not having a quality road network is just shooting yourself in the foot.

HJ Article

[Sparkleman]

Please kill it this time. Somehow this city was able to budget $$$ for streets and bridges through our tax dollars before the fee came around. I'm sure we can manage it again.

Also if our politicians (in order to get elected) say they are going to get rid of it, show some cajoones and stand up for what you said you were going to do.

[djh1963]

Please kill it this time. Somehow this city was able to budget $$$ for streets and bridges through our tax dollars before the fee came around. I'm sure we can manage it again.

Also if our politicians (in order to get elected) say they are going to get rid of it, show some cajoones and stand up for what you said you were going to do.

[roads-scholar]

I peronally wish they would just leave it alone and stop getting people all riled up about a fee we need and that comes to less than .50 per week per vechile.

[Spartan]

My guess is that before the road fee, they had a much slower (if not non-existant) process of replacing bridges.

[Sparkleman]

Is it really fair to give someone who is 70 years old or older and does not drive a $25 fee to take care of the roads?

[clemsonfn]

Is it really fair to give someone who is 70 years old or older and does not drive a $25 fee to take care of the roads?

[hub-city]

Is it really fair to give someone who is 70 years old or older and does not drive a $25 fee to take care of the roads?

[Sparkleman]

Well heck, why don't we go ahead and raise the sales tax and build some sparkling new bridges and then pump up the garbage fee a little more and build some concrete roads over the regular tar based variety. Then, we can raise the road fee and little higher (that is if anyone still lives in town at this point) and get some REAL restaurants downtown that may really stand a chance of staying open.

Man you folks in favor of higher "fees"/taxes really kill me. If we just had some competent folks in city government that could budget efficiently this would not be necessary.

[breed]

Well heck, why don't we go ahead and raise the sales tax and build some sparkling new bridges and then pump up the garbage fee a little more and build some concrete roads over the regular tar based variety. Then, we can raise the road fee and little higher (that is if anyone still lives in town at this point) and get some REAL restaurants downtown that may really stand a chance of staying open.

Man you folks in favor of higher "fees"/taxes really kill me. If we just had some competent folks in city government that could budget efficiently this would not be necessary.

[hub-city]

There is a good editorial in today's paper on this subject. I think it is important to note that the fee was the result of a loss of state funding, and not due to wasteful spending by our county council. (this is not a city fee)

None of us are excited about fees or taxes, but the alternative is to not maintain our roads. Out county budgets are public so if anyone wants to go in there and see what to cut, then I'll be "all ears". Making a blanket statement about finances without offering solutions is not productive.

Check the LINK

[Spartan]

That was a good editorial. I wish it would have gone in to a little more depth about the problems with the state's tax structure and how it has been altered due to political pandering and shortsighted politicians.

[Spartan]

It looks like the County is going to keep the road fee, at least in some form. There are several options on the table, but the most popular seems to be a tiered system based on vehicle weight:

Motorcycles: $5-10

Cars: $15

Trucks: $25

"Heavy-Duty" vehicles: $50

In general I am in favor of moving to a weight-based system. That seems fair.

They say that this will generate about $4.4 million a year, which is what the current $25 fee generated when it was first implemented. The revenues from that fee have risen to a projected $6.4 million for FY09, which on councilmember specifically called a "windfall." I don't personally see how that possible since the fee is based off of vehicle registration. It seems to me that the only way it can go up is if more cars have been registered, which means more cars on the road and thus more wear and tear. I'm generally opposed to reducing funding for our infrastructure. and this is no exception. I would like to see the option implemented that moves to a tiered structure but with cars still at $25.

HJ Article

[Spartan]

Two outdated wooden railroad bridges on Overhead Bridge Road and Ezell Road near Chesnee are being replaced thanks to the $25 road fee.

The best quote of the article is this: "[Councilman] Mintz has been a strong opponent of the $25 road fee in the past. But he has said publicly that after trying and failing to eliminate the fee, he has realized it cannot go away unless money is there to replace it."

People love to complain about the fee, but paying for infrastructure is not optional.

HJ Article

[roads-scholar]

Two outdated wooden railroad bridges on Overhead Bridge Road and Ezell Road near Chesnee are being replaced thanks to the $25 road fee.

The best quote of the article is this: "[Councilman] Mintz has been a strong opponent of the $25 road fee in the past. But he has said publicly that after trying and failing to eliminate the fee, he has realized it cannot go away unless money is there to replace it."

People love to complain about the fee, but paying for infrastructure is not optional.

HJ Article