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Health & Fitness

Community Update

The issue of lousy roads in EG is not new but as the problem continues and is unaddressed by our town representatives. The problem gets bigger and the cost will become more as well. While EG spends money on shiny new police stations and senior centers and proposes giving every student in the schools an ipad it has neglected the one thing that everyone uses… the roads. Look at how long it took the town to repave Frenchtown and Middle roads which looked like third world country roadways. I had even made the suggestion that in a year when we had left over monies in the snow removal budget to repave tillinghast (which they actually did). The issue at hand is not the DPW but the lack of vision of our elected officials in our town which only proposed $250K this year in the budget for road work. (might get you small sidewalk in town).If you noted recently RI ranks as one of the worst states for road conditions and actually costs twice as much than any other state to maintain or repair roads. Thus our council must take a hard look at fixing the problem. The problem is large enough that we must float bonds and find additional resources to fix the problem. As a car enthusiast I wonder what the hidden cost is to the second highest purchase we make (automobiles) when it comes to the wear and tear on our vehicles driving over these potholes and damaged roadways. I for one will drive any other way I can to avoid Arrowhead drive a road that is more suitable for off-road vehicles than your everyday car. As an EG taxpayer who pays exorbitant property taxes something needs to be done and we need to set appropriate priorities in that small 15% of the total budget which goes to non school expenditures to address this problem. What many don’t understand is that without fixing the roads it lowers the value of our properties in town and will cost us more in the long run. Time to admit the problem and address ways to fix it!

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