Council receives audit on shortfall for building, maintaining its largest asset
Source: Stephanie Rice
Columbian staff writer
www.columbian.com
If you’re unhappy with the city’s improvements on Northeast 137th/138th Avenue from Northeast 28th to 49th streets, take heart: The city doesn’t have any money to continue the project from 49th Street north to Fourth Plain Road.
The city also doesn’t have money for four other high-priority capital improvement projects:
• Northeast 18th Street from Four Seasons Lane to Northeast 137th Avenue.
• Southeast First Street from Southeast 164th to 192nd avenues.
• Northeast 18th Street from Northeast 107th to 97th/98th avenues.
• Jefferson Street/Kauffman Avenue between Evergreen and W. Fourth Plain boulevards.
All together, the five projects would cost $46.1 million.
The Vancouver City Council was presented with a grim confirmation Monday of what it knew, that it is millions of dollars short on its goals of reconstructing streets, including ones that were built to a rural standard (such as Southeast First Street) and can’t handle urban traffic.
The councilors didn’t make any policy decisions Monday. They are scheduled to set a policy by mid-to-late November on how to best manage long-term transportation needs, including how those needs should be financed.