The newly formed Pima County Transportation Advisory Committee got a taste of the challenging work that lies ahead at its very first meeting last Tuesday.
Though the agenda was mostly formalities — electing chairs and co-chairs, an overview of the open meetings law, an in-the-weeds conversation about the nature of pavement, as well as its decline and preservation — several Green Valley residents sat through the several hours of fluorescent-lit proceedings to lobby on behalf of their crumbling roads.
“The roads here in Pima County are the worst ones that we encounter,” said Green Valley resident Christi Heintz, who has properties in two other states, giving her a means of comparison. “The roads are crumbling. It reflects the infrastructure of the town and it reflects a poor economic robustness.”
As every regular Road Runner reader will know, Heintz’s roads are not alone. Nearly 800 miles out of unincorporated Pima County’s 1,235 miles of local streets are in poor or failed condition. Using figures in a white paper provided to all committee members Friday, the cost of getting those roads into good condition would be about $175 million.
However, unincorporated Pima County’s estimated share of the new 25-cent road property tax is about $8.2 million for the first of five years of collection. Deciding how to divvy up that sum between numerous deteriorating local streets — the exclusive focus of the effort — by early October and presenting recommendations for approval to the Board of Supervisors is the complicated task before committee chair Lucretia Free and her 12 fellow members. After that, the committee will tackle the remaining years of the tax, along with a number of other local transportation issues.
“I think that nothing touches every resident of Pima County more intimately than the roads,” Free told the Road Runner. “We’ve all either walked them, drove them or biked them or motorcycled them. People care about it.”
The committee is made up of two nominees from each county supervisor and three from County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry. Free said some have spent years serving on similar boards or in public office, while others are relatively new to such proceedings, a diversity of experience she cited as a strength.
Other county jurisdictions will share $11.3 million over the first year, the apportionment of which is based on a town or city’s share of total assessed value. Recommendations for specific projects within those jurisdictions will be made jointly by their governing boards or transportation advisory committees and the county’s newly formed advisory committee.
Over 80 percent of Tucson’s local roads are in poor to failed condition, according to recent data included in the white paper.
Only a fraction of Marana’s and Sahuarita’s are, and nearly 12 percent of Oro Valley’s are in such condition. South Tucson did not submit data, according to the white paper.
Efforts to work on Tucson’s local roads will also be helped along by the voter-approved Proposition 101 sales tax, $40 million of which will go to such work over five years.
Because the scale of the problem outstrips the available funding, Free said transparency and public involvement, as well as technical input from the county transportation staff, are critical to ensuring that the process is perceived as fair.
“I think that people want to be heard. That’s the first step. Now there’s an outlet for our community to share their concerns,” she said, adding later that whatever method the committee uses to choose what work is done where must be “as objective as possible.”
If you want to weigh in, the next meeting will be Monday, Aug. 14, starting at noon at the Abrams Public Health Center, 3950 S. Country Club Road.
For information on the committee and the road property tax, go to tinyurl.com/y9btl8d4
