You’re going to know about Cedar Rapids’ Paving for Progress

Cedar Rapids taxpayers don't pass the local-option sales tax (LOST) gladly.

After all, less than nine months after the city's historic 2008 flood disaster, only 59 percent of local voters agreed to the 1 percent sales tax for 63 months to fill gaps left by hundreds of millions of dollars of federal and state flood-recovery help.

In May 2011 and again in March 2012, voters rejected plans to extend the tax for 20 years and then 10 years for flood protection and street repairs - and then just for flood protection.

'I still think people want to protect both sides of the river,” City Council member Monica Vernon said after the 2012 defeat for flood protection funds. 'Perhaps the message is they don't want to pay for it. …

But cities are forever. You never give up on Cedar Rapids. You never give up on each other.”

By November 2013, 62 percent of voters finally agreed that the condition of city streets had become sufficiently jaw-rattling that it made sense to approve the local sales tax for 10 years to fix streets.

City officials now are vowing to make sure that residents know when and how the revenue from the tax renewal - estimated at $180 million over 10 years in today's dollars - is spent.

They've given the program a name - Paving for Progress - worthy of government initiatives with tall ambition and big promises.

And city crews also have created 50 large, eye-catching signs, which will promote streets repaired, resurfaced or rebuilt with LOST money in the Paving for Progress program.

Emily Muhlbach, communications coordinator for the city's Development Services Department who has spearheaded the effort to design the signs, said the city doesn't want residents to wonder if and when the street transformation is going to happen and where.

'We want then to see action right away, and we want to make it as easy as possible for people to see what is going on, to see the progress,” Muhlbach said. 'We want to be as transparent and as visible as possible so people can feel really good about how they have invested with their vote.”

Rob Davis, the city's engineering operations manager, said city engineers typically are lousy self-promoters when it comes to infrastructure projects.

However, Davis said he is reminded every time he takes his children swimming in Cedar Rapids pools how local taxpayers put the LOST in place for one year in July 2001 to build and fix pools.

'I still remember what we got for that $16 million to $18 million all these years later,” Davis said. 'You now know what you can get with that 1 cent tax. You can get a heck of a lot.

'We would not have a Cherry Hill Pool and a Noelridge Pool without that. Those are fantastic. And I'm hoping we can say the same thing 10 years later about the streets.”

‘Once and for all'

Late last week, George Heeren didn't realize that his quiet tree-lined street off First Avenue SW next to Cleveland Park suddenly had become the poster child for the city's new Paving for Progress program.

Over the years, Heeren said city crews have patched and fussed a little with 17th Street SW, and then they did it again and again.

'It's nice for them to come through and fix it once and for all,” said Heeren, president of the Cleveland Neighborhood Association.

This week, a city street crew will be on Heeren's street to put down an asphalt overlay - the first of many to come on city residential streets during the 10-year life of the city's fix-the-streets sales tax. Davis estimated that 500 city streets will see work in one form or another with LOST money.

The city is launching the Paving for Progress program on 17th Street SW between First and 10th avenues SW - about three city blocks long - because, Davis said, 17th Street SW is exactly the type of residential street of subpar quality that long has missed out on good care and long would have - but for voter approval of the LOST funds.

By itself, this isn't that exciting a project,” Davis said. 'What is exciting is that we're doing it at all.”

The overall city strategy, he said, is to replace the worst streets, which is the highest-cost option, and at the same time to resurface or otherwise improve needy streets so that they don't get to the status of the city's worst streets.

Davis said there is something like a continuum of care for streets in need of help. The life on some can be extended by sealing cracks or replacing joints or panels in the street. Some will get asphalt overlays, but some need a total street replacement.

'This is a tricky thing where some streets are so bad we have to work on the worst,” he said. 'But you want to work on streets that are in fair condition as well.”

The city's 10-year tax for streets doesn't begin to be collected until July 1, and the first revenue from it won't be here until September. The city, though, can't lose most of a street construction season waiting, so it is using street funds on hand to begin Paving for Progress work now with the idea that revenue from LOST will replace short-term funds used now.

Davis said the city expects to do 30 projects and $8 million of Paving for Progress work this construction season, with city crews doing some projects and larger projects ones sent out for bids and handled by local contractors.

At the same time, the city will be working on an expanded curb-and-gutter repair program throughout the city and will be doing other street maintenance work in some instances in preparation for asphalt overlays in 2015. The city also has hired a consultant to determine the construction priority in upcoming years.

Other large street projects will be underway as well that are not funded by Paving For Progress dollars, but are paid for largely with federal grants, property assessments and/or property-tax revenue within special tax increment financing districts.

Mike Duffy, the city's streets superintendent, said the Public Works Department worked over the winter and during the early spring to identify 'quick-start” projects so it could get as much done as possible this construction season. Street crews, for instance, already are busy replacing concrete panels on Northbrook Drive NE off Council Street NE as the city asphalt program gets ready to go.

'We're excited to be making lasting improvements instead of temporary ones,” Duffy said.

Davis said 17th Street SW rose to the top of residential asphalt projects, in part, because many street candidates were set aside for this year because they need in-street utility work first or at the time of the street work.

Initially, Davis said Duffy had identified six miles of residential streets as first ones to target this year. However, only one of the six miles is ready for work this year, he said.

One case in point, 42nd Street NE between Interstate 380 and Wenig Road NE, fell off this year's resurfacing list when the city discovered its subsurface had crumbled. The street needs replaced, not resurfaced, Davis said.

He said the city expects to use its existing street crew members this summer as Paving for Progress takes off. In the end, city workers will need to do less street maintenance as more permanent street improvements take hold.

Davis pointed to the street project on 76th Avenue SW near The Eastern Iowa Airport, which is being paid for with funds other than LOST money. Every other year, city crews spent considerable time on 76th Avenue SW put a new layer of seal coating on it. With the new street, they can use that time and effort on Paving for Progress projects, he said.

On Thursday, city workers were marking up spots on 17th Street SW in preparation for the asphalt paving work to come in upcoming days.

'Really,” said Sheryl Ochs, who has lived on the street for years, 'I don't see a lot of potholes.”

The street isn't the worst, she said, but it could use the help if the city is fixing more than just the worst, she said.

A new layer of asphalt will make the neighborhood look better than ever, which can't hurt property values, Ochs said.

Mayor Corbett picked himself off the carpet after he had made himself the pitchman to renew the city's local-option sales tax in May 2011 to fix streets and help with flood protection.

By last fall, Corbett put on his running shoes, and ran 130 miles of city streets as he ran for mayor to get close-up look at bad streets. He ran the 17th Street SW neighborhood along the way.

'Over the years, the condition of the streets has been one of the top issues that citizens have really complained about,” the mayor said last week. 'They've complained to every mayor and every City Council member. Finally, we have the resources in place to make a significant difference.”

Corbett said he had hoped that the Iowa Legislature and the governor would have steered more state gas-tax money to Iowa's cities, but they did not.

'We just couldn't wait for them,” the mayor said.

This time, the sales-tax push worked.

'The people of Cedar Rapids supported this overwhelmingly,” he said. 'They know that our city has challenges, our state and country have challenges. I think they appreciate elected officials being straightforward with them: Here's the problem and here's the solution.”

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Projected 2014 Paving for Progress projects

Asterisked projects will be done by the city; others will be put up for bid

NW Quadrant

Ellis Blvd. from K Avenue to O Avenue

B Avenue NW Improvements from Highland Drive to Eighth Street

13th Street NW from A Avenue to B Avenue *

E Avenue from Stoney Point Road to Rock Valley *

Ellis Lane NW, Ellis Blvd to Eighth Street NW *

SW Quadrant

Third Avenue SW Improvements from Sixth Street to 10th Street

Eighth Avenue SW Improvements from 10th Street to Seventh Street

Diagonal Drive SW Improvements from Interstate 380 to West Eighth Avenue Bridge Approach

Edgewood Road SW from Williams Boulevard to 16th Avenue

Wiley Blvd SW from Williams Boulevard to 16th Avenue

17th Street SW from First Avenue to 10th Avenue *

West Post Road SW from Ruhd Street to 16th Avenue *

Wilson Avenue SW from West Post Road to Troy Street *

Hawkeye Downs Road from Sixth Street to J Street *

NE Quadrant

Boyson Road NE Improvements from C Avenue to East Corporate Limits

Coe Road NE Improvements from Center Point Road to A Avenue

Glass Road NE Improvements from Edgewood Road to Wenig Road

Kiowa Trace NE, 6821 to 7015 Residences *

Oakland Rd NE from E Ave to H Ave

Seminole Valley Rd NE from Fords Crossing Road to 42nd St

Blairs Ferry Rd NE from W. of Miller Ave to W to Wayside Circle Dr

74th Street from White Ivy Place to C Ave

42nd Street from I-380 to Wenig Rd

Northbrook Drive NE from Boxwood Lane to Laurel Lane NE *

SE Quadrant

Fourth Avenue Improvements from Sixth Street to 19th Street

19th Street from Fifth Avenue to Bever Avenue

ever Avenue from 19th Street to 14th Street

Bever Avenue from 22nd Street to Memorial Drive

Garden Drive from Grande Avenue to Washington Avenue

11th Avenue Improvements from Third Street to Fourth Street