Sterling city officials are having to get creative as they try to maintain and improve the city’s infrastructure.
City Manager and Rotarian Kevin Blankenship told Sterling Rotary Wednesday that Sterling’s aging infrastructure and the city’s topography adds to the challenge of improvement.
“Anywhere you look in the city, streets need work,” Blankenship said. “But because Sterling is so flat, we can’t just have (a paving company) come in and do overlays, otherwise we have pools of water standing in the streets.”
Blankenship said grading the streets to allow them to drain often triples the cost of repaving. There is grant money available to take on major projects but before Sterling can access any of it the city has to have a street master plan.
Sterling already is engaged in that first step, the city manager said, having agreed to participate in a grant program to develop a street improvement plan. Once that plan has been done, Blankenship said, “…then we can get to the construction funds.”
While the city’s streets are the most visible area needing improvement, it’s what’s underneath that poses as big or bigger challenge.
“I’d like to do a lot more with water (line) replacement,” he said. “The infrastructure is aged and it’s only going to get worse.”
In order to cut costs, Sterling is looking at renting machinery for city upkeep rather than buying the expensive equipment. Faced with having to replace its two aging street sweepers, Blankenship said, city officials decided instead to rent a large sweeper that will perform better than the other two combined and still cost less than purchasing one.
Keeping the city updated into the 21st century, Blankenship said, is going to rely more and more on creating partnerships, both at home and elsewhere. He cited as an example the city’s partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration to fund the half-million-dollar apron replacement project at Sterling Municipal Airport. Sterling’s match for the federal funds is only $25,000.
“We want to have a partnership with the people of Sterling, where the citizens are actively engaged with city government,” he said. “At the same time, we’re forging partnerships with the federal government, state agencies, county governments and other municipalities.”