Councilors to weigh roadwork measures.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

The Eugene City Council on Wednesday gave itself a choice: Does it think voters are willing to pay more property taxes for five years to repair cracked and potholed streets? Or are residents up for 10 years of higher taxes for that work?

The council later this month will decide whether to send a $35.9 million or an $81.1 million street repair bond measure to voters in November.

Councilors on Wednesday discussed the property tax- financed bond measures as a way to reduce - but not eliminate - the city's street repair backlog.

Councilors were mulling whether to send an $81.1 million bond measure to voters on Nov. 4 when Councilor Bonny Bettman offered a proposal for a $35.9 million measure.

Both measures would impose a property tax levy of 59 cents per $1,000 of assessed value on Eugene property owners, but the larger measure would last 10 years while Bettman's proposal would last five years.

"I think $81 million is too big a reach and 10 years is too long for people to visualize the results," Bettman said.

Yet other councilors said Bettman's measure was not enough to appreciably reduce the city's $173 million backlog of street repairs.

If the council sent voters another street repair bond measure in five or more years, residents probablywoulddefeat it, thinking "they already voted to fix the streets," Councilor George Polingsaid.

"I'm not willing to support half the job now and half the job later," he said.

The $81.1 million bond measure would let the city complete 86 repair projects covering 150 miles of mostly major streets and seven miles of off-street bike and pedestrian paths.

Some of the streets to be repaired include a long stretch of Willamette Street, between 29th Avenue and Spencers Crest; Chambers Street, between West 11th and 24th avenues; Royal Avenue, between Highway 99 and Waite Street; West 13th Avenue between Monroe and Kinkaid streets; much of East and West Amazon drives; and all of Martin Luther King Boulevard; and much of Goodpasture Island Road.

Public works engineers have yet to determine which streets would get fixed under the smaller bond measure proposed by Bettman.

The larger bond measure would cost the owner of a home assessed at $157,000 - the city's median value-an average of $107 a year for 10 years, or $1,070.

The smaller bond measure would cost the same homeowner $99 for five years, or $495.

Councilors are scheduled on July 28 to decide which to endorse.

At that time, councilors are to get poll results from a survey taken earlier this month on the city's street repair problem. Among other questions, the survey asked 400 residents if they would support an $81.1 million bond measure.

On Wednesday, councilors voted 7-1 to ask staff to prepare the two proposals. Poling cast the lone "no" vote.

Mayor Kitty Piercy urged councilors to support one bond measure, thereby avoiding a split vote that characterizes many major council decisions.

If the vote "ends up 4-4, I'm not going to support" any bond measure, she said.

A majority of the proposed street projects are south of the Willamette River, mainly because many city streets most in need of repair are located in the older areas of town.

The $81.1 million money measure would put a large dent in the street repair backlog, but none of the money would be used to repair some of the city's worst streets.

Built before city annexation, these so-called unimproved streets don't meet city design standards and receive minimal or no maintenance.

Public Works Director Kurt Corey, however, developed a plan to spend most of a special $1 million council appropriation to resurface 5' miles of such streets over the next two years.