MEMORANDUM

TO: City Council

FROM: David J. Deutsch
City Manager

SUBJECT: County Roads

DATE: April 21, 2008

The Public Works Director has prepared the attached analysis of the future resurfacing costs of the County roads located within Bowie. As part of the analysis, the question of whether the City should assume ownership of and maintenance responsibilities for the County roads is addressed. This is not a new subject, as it has been broached with County Executives and County staff going back as far as the Glendening era. The County never seemed to take the issue seriously.

Staff met last November with the County Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPW&T) staff, and the matter of County road takeover was one subject among many that was discussed. Although the DPW&T staff seemed interested in the concept at that meeting, they did not follow through with meetings that they suggested would need to occur with City staff. The City Public Works memo suggests an additional resurfacing cost on an annual basis of $144,830. This is a net figure after recognizing the additional revenue of $8,000 per mile from the Highway User Revenue program. The cost of routine maintenance such as pot hole repairs and winter storm control has not been factored into the report at this time. When this matter was first being discussed over a decade ago, the impetus seemed to be that the City could provide a quicker response to road condition problems, particularly in the winter. Our sense now is that the management of DPW&T has improved, and that the County response time to various road maintenance issues is at an acceptable level. The other dilemma pointed out in the attached report, is that City assumption of these roads would require their treatment during winter storms before the main drives and hills that currently are City priorities.

There would no doubt be some additional City maintenance required for some of the rights-of-way of these roads. This may need to be contracted out and a dollar figure has not been developed at this point. Also as was indicated in the budget meeting in reference to the rising costs of the resurfacing program, the City will be having many new streets added to our resurfacing program over the next ten years, which will stretch our resources even further to maintain the present program.

Given the negative financial impact and the potential service implications, we do not recommend that this matter be pursued further. Staff has developed productive working relationships with County personnel, and we should continue to use those lines of communication to press the County to respond rapidly to issues on their roads.

DJD/asf

Attachment