City County Council Approves Road Projects

The Department of Public Works says there are $24 million in emergency road repairs needed in Indianapolis because of the harsh winter.

Monday, the City County Council approved money to pay for a third of those projects.

Members voted 24-5 in favor of spending $8 million to fix damage roads.

DPW originally wanted repairs done on the worst of the worst roads, but some Democratic councilors opposed because they thought the identified projects were in primarily Republican districts. 

Now, the money will be dispersed to all 25 council districts, which is why Republican Councilor Jack Sandlin voted against the proposal.

"I'm not going to vote for this as long as we have political influences dictating where these roads need to be paved and we need to get the politics out of it," said Sandlin.  "We need to look at a larger fix and we need to do that as a body, but we shouldn't be dictating what roads DPW needs to resurface based on politics."

But, Democratic Councilor Vernon Brown says the money aims to help all residents.

"We just asked for a fair and equitable distribution of resources since there is a limited amount of resources," said Brown.  "There's a $24 million need and only $8 million to plug that need, so all we requested was a fair and equitable distribution of resources so all tax payers of Marion County will receive some benefit."

Another proposal was introduced to pay for the other $16 million in repairs.  It now heads to committee for consideration.

DPW Director Lori Miser says she is concerned about the funding source.

"The proposal is that it come from our Transportation General Fund, which is basically our savings account, and we really can't afford to do that," she said.  "We need to look at some other options."

The council also approved $7 million dollars to pay for unexpected snow removal.