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County To Address Road Fixes Again

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By JULIA FERRANTE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 3, 2008

The issue is not a new one in Pasco County: A dirt road outside government jurisdiction falls into disrepair. Residents ask for a "one-time emergency fix." County commissioners consider paying to grade or pave the road.

And the debate begins.

Should the county commission pay to fix and maintain private roads? If so, how much? And where should the money come from?

County Commissioner Pat Mulieri, whose district includes many of the county's unpaved roads, has raised the issue several times during her tenure on the board. She again is calling for a workshop to address road fixes, although even she is not sure what the county should do.

"The biggest thing is inequities," Mulieri, who lives on an unpaved road, said Wednesday. "People should have a decent road to live on and not be breathing in dust ... Everybody pays gas tax if they have a vehicle, yet some people get roads fixed every six months, and others never get a shovel of dirt."

Pasco has about 325 miles of private dirt roads and about 260 miles of private paved roads, including those in gated subdivisions. The majority of the private dirt roads are in Mulieri's central Pasco territory and Commissioner Ted Schrader's east Pasco district.

When county staff receives a complaint about a road in bad repair, the public works and emergency medical services departments evaluate it. If the road is deemed impassable, County Administrator John Gallagher can authorize repairs. If a county commissioner gets a complaint, the request usually goes to the full board.

Board Has Failed In The Past

When Mulieri brought up the issue at a recent county commission meeting, retiring County Attorney Robert Sumner reminded her of the board's past failings on the subject.

"You all are really good at identifying the problems, but you never come up with solutions," he said.

This time, Mulieri said, she hopes the board will agree to set aside money, perhaps $200,000, for road improvements. County leaders have tried that approach before. The stumbling blocks have been identifying where the money should come from - and deciding what to do when the funds run out.

Other options for raising funds include increasing the gasoline tax, setting up a special taxing district or levying assessments on residents.

The average cost of paving dirt roads is about $6,000 a mile, including grading with a limerock base, said Bipin Parikh, the assistant county administrator for development services. Repaving to fix potholes costs about half that.

Alternative Method Won't Cut It

County officials have tried to find a less expensive way to pave roads. The county in 2005 launched a pilot project with Florida Highway Products to use a less expensive, "cold" paving alternative. Officials did not expand that program, partly because the real cost of paving a road comes with establishing a base.

"If you do an open-grade mix, you still have to do a base," Parikh said. "If you don't have a base, it's like putting a stronger lock on a very thin door. It will break."

The Florida attorney general's office has issued an opinion that counties may not spend taxpayer money on privately owned roads. Pasco does allocate tax money for those roads if they are impassable by emergency vehicles, in the form of a "one-time emergency fix."

"This thing comes up about every two years," he said. "The whole thing is: How do we figure out non-county-maintained dirt roads? The county pays close to $100,000 per year on this. Several workshops have taken place in the past. Money is a central issue."

Commissioners have not yet set a date for the workshop.

Reporter Julia Ferrante can be reached at (813) 948-4220 or jferrante@tampatrib.com.

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