After Mother Nature socked the North Fork hard last winter, Southold roads were left in dire need of repair.
So much so, said Southold Town Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando today, that the approximately $750,000 allocated for road resurfacing this year has been spent.
“I am out of funds to pave roads as of today,” Orlando said today at a Southold town board work session.
Based on last year’s “long, cold historic winter,” the town’s highway fund for this year, which included $563,000 in Consolidated Highway Improvement Program, or CHIPS, funds, and $175,000 in the town highway department’s resurfacing budget, has been depleted.
To that end, Orlando asked the town for an additional $250,000 so he can begin work again this week, while the weather is still good and before the severe cold sets in.
This year, Orlando said he began in the east, repairing roads in Orient and East Marion, where some surfaces were “down to dirt.”
Orlando said he’s got a priority list, using a “quilting” approach, working on roads that are in the worst shape first, including Peconic Bay Boulevard.
“We have very bad roads, in very bad condition, that need serious help,” he said.
The good new is that the town has applied for a $250,000 grant for next year, Orlando said, dedicated to Peconic Bay Boulevard; while the amount wouldn’t fix the road completely, “it would help,” he said, adding that it’s not certain that the town would be awarded the grant.
While the highway department needs a “guess-timated” $300,000 to $400,000, Orlando said he believes $250,000 would allow the highway department to “squeak by” this year and get the roads done.
Work will include asphalt and microsurfacing, he said.
Orlando said he hopes the town isn’t in for yet another “horrific winter.”
Work needs to be done now, before the temperatures drop, he said. “Some roads can’t be left the way they are. They are just not safe and they won’t be able to take another winter,” he said. “We can’t leave the town in disarray,” adding that a “tarnished silver bullet” would help the town to get through the season.
The board agreed to the $250,000 allocation from the highway fund balance.
Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said the goal was to look at the town’s fund balance “globally” and said a balanced approach must be taken between both bonding and utilization of the town highway fund’s balance. The $250,000 could be “recaptured” in a year or two, he said.
