To the Editor:

While a huge burden may have been lifted from some of our previous council members' shoulders, I have accepted the responsibility of telling the residents the truth about the "roads" levy. I have never been a fan of having a lack of communication. Early voting has started already and as I read through the local papers, I haven't noticed any articles about the levy recently. I'm going to try this approach although I'm not going to be very popular for it, but sometimes that is the price you pay for telling the truth.

The truth is that this levy will not generate enough money to repair all of the roads in Brunswick. The money that is generated and the anticipatory assumption of grant money will not be enough to repair all of the roads in Brunswick. The levy combined with the assumed grant monies would be enough to bring the condition of the roads from the current level of 70 to a 77 out of 100 rating on average over a period of 10 years. This means that 20 miles of new road rated at 100 and another 20 miles rated at 54 gives us 40 miles of an average rating of 77.

Hopefully you are still with me on this. The reason for the 10 year period is because the last 10 years of the levy would be needed to retire the debt that was created from the road projects to bring them to that level along with funding the maintenance for the new repairs and maybe some small road repairs. The road report is just a suggested plan for conducting the road repairs and could be altered at any time through approval of council.

The fact still remains, that no matter how we restructure the plan the optimal result will still be a 77 out of 100 average rating for the roads in Brunswick. We are faced with a tough choice and although my opinion does not vote for you, I want you to understand what my view is on the levy. If we vote "yes" then we can jumpstart the road repair program and address some of the deplorable roads in this city.

Meanwhile, we will continue to search for alternative funding sources. If we vote "no" then we will continue a patch and repair program that is currently in place until an alternative funding source can be achieved. The patch and repair program currently in place will not stop the roads from getting worse. Pearl Road will be repaved this year regardless if the levy passes or not but the levy will allow us to address roads like Boston, Grafton and other secondary streets sooner than later.

I understand why the levy failed last November and I'd understand if it fails in March. If you want to expedite the road repairs than a "yes" vote is needed. Otherwise, the roads will have to wait until we can find an alternative funding source.

Dave Coleman

Ward 3 Councilman

Brunswick