Alleyway. Maintenance.
For the last two weeks, these two words have been my least favorite in the English dictionary. It has nothing to do with a desire to keep our community’s alleys in poor shape, I do want our alleys fixed. But this is one of those issues that puts our community between a rock and hard place.
Several years ago, as many in the community remember, the borough used to grade and maintain alleyways for residents. Then something happened. The kind of “thing” that brings simple, common sense, and benign programs to a grinding halt. Lawsuits and insurance. While grading an alleyway, a resident complained about the work the borough was doing and initiated an altercation with a borough employee. That altercation did not end up going any further…but it could have. After consultation from the borough insurance company, they reminded council and staff that residents own the alley property and altering something you do not own opens the borough up to potential litigation.
Lawyers, they seem to ruin everything.
That single event is how alleyway maintenance came to an end. However, over the last few months residents have, rightfully so, been discussing with elected officials and borough staff about how we can bring our alleyway infrastructure back up to proper care. Before this issue is settled, we must contend with two realities: trash trucks and insurance costs.
Trash, everyone’s favorite topic. But, if we are going to invest more time, money, and resources into alleyways, we should consider trying to deal with what brings about much of the damage to begin with. Trash trucks, and other heavy vehicles, are major contributors to road damage. This has been researched and proven by study, after study, after study. To spend more money on alleyways without trying to decrease truck traffic on our roads and alleys is, at best, a band-aid solution that will only continually cost our community more money year after year. If we want our infrastructure and our investment to last longer, we need to stop treating the symptoms and start treating the source of the problem.
The second tough part of this issue is the borough’s insurance premiums. Like all insurance providers, municipal government insurance hates risk. The more risk, the higher the premiums. This is something we can all relate to and have experienced. The fact that the borough does not own the property that will be repaired opens the borough up to potential litigation and risk. It is very possible the Borough’s insurance costs will go up if this program is re-implemented. How much of an increase is unknown at this time, however, our insurance provider has re-iterated their opposition to the borough taking on this project.
As stated before, we need to figure this issue out. Our alleyways are in rough shape and I know it can be more than a little difficult to get the whole street together to share in the cost of repair. The “community-organizing” approach has not worked. The state of our alleys proves that out. So, if we are going to take on this project, then we need to maximize the impact of the work we are doing and start addressing some of the other challenges, like truck traffic, to help make the added risk worth the investment.
(Mayoral Musings is a weekly op-ed column submitted to North Penn Now, courtesy of Lansdale Borough Mayor Garry Herbert.)
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