The Borough Manager, Michael Thomas wrote back to me.

I sent this...

"Please read people's comments and complaints about this road. Also could someone inform me of what has been decided about this road. I have been living in Edgemede for 15 years. The road has been bad ever since and only getting worse. I use it daily and have a feeling when I move away (in the distant future, meaning couple years) it will likely be fixed then, when I won't be needing to use it anymore, if I move out of the area. I am not the only one who feels that something bad is going to happen on that road and that is when the community will care to do something about it."

And he responded with..

Randi,

I have read many of the comments and I can honestly say that no one on staff here or any of the Borough officials dispute the fact that the road is in very poor shape. A few months back, the Borough engineer was instructed to design a reconstruction project to alleviate the road condition problem for the near future.

Davidson Road is not a simple fix however. There are many factors which contribute to the condition of the road, the inefficiency of the minor repair work that has been done and the safety issues. Davison Road was constructed (and I use the word “constructed” very loosely) many years ago from a dirt path. It was not the proper width when it was put in and an adequate substructure was constructed.

In order to be properly repaired, Davidson should be widened to a proper width, completely excavated and re-built. However, in order to widen the road properly, private property would have to be taken (eminent domain). This is a very long legal process-even a battle at times which often takes years.

The lack of a proper sub-structure under the pavement means that the entire area must be excavated to a depth of about two feet and replaced with the proper sub-surface materials and then the proper surface paving can be done. This entire process for Davidson rd. will cost roughly $3,000,000.00. To give you an idea of how that compares to the rest of the Borough, we annually spend about only $1,000,000.00 in total for all Borough roads for reconstruction. To be clear, this does not mean that the Borough simply intends to ignore the situation.

However, to spend three million dollars on one road at any given time is not currently possible given the Borough’s tax structure and budget. Compounding this issue is the fact that the new Walmart development will soon be underway (I know that the public perception is that the Walmart has died-let me assure you that it will be happening in the very near future). The developer of the walmart has a master plan for the adjacent property which will require major road improvements to Davidson Road. When this happens, the developer will be required to make these improvements to Davidson road and to pay for them. When this work is done, the developer will be tearing up the road to make these improvements at his expense (not the taxpayers).

I’m sure you can agree, that for the Borough to spend three million dollars of tax payer money in 2008 only to have a developer tear up the road and rebuild it for the expansion, in say 2010, would not be a wise use of three years’ worth of capital improvement funds or of any tax dollars.

As I said previously, the engineer is in the process of coming up with a cost-effective design plan that will help alleviate the road condition problems on Davidson road for the time being. It is our goal to address the surface issues as much as possible until such time that we can be certain (one way or the other) of the future development plans for Davidson Road. The Borough is not simply ignoring the problem; however it is much more complex than most people realize.

I hope to have the temporary reconstruction plan completed shortly and have an implementation plan for the work to be completed. I can appreciate your frustration, and I believe that you have been patient. I hope to have this problem addressed within this construction season.

Sincerely,

Michael A. Thomas