Chester council asks for repaving plan; staff cites prior study, funding limits and incremental approach

A council member asked city staff at the Jan. 21, 2025, City of Chester deliberative meeting for a concrete plan or map showing which streets are slated for repaving and on what timeline. City staff said the city previously commissioned a study (identified in the meeting as an HRG study) that inventories streets by condition, describes forms of degradation and estimates repair costs by severity; staff offered to provide that study to council members and to meet with finance staff to explore liquid fuels funds.

“Prior to me being employed here, the city conducted a study. I think it’s HRG, I mix up that acronym sometimes, study, I can send it to you if you’d like,” said Miss Gaffney, city staff, during the meeting. She said the study lists city streets by condition and provides per-square-foot repair cost estimates for different levels of roadway damage.

Staff cautioned that funding restrictions affect which streets can be resurfaced with specific funding sources. The transcript records staff saying the 2025 capital budget included approximately $950,000 of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for street resurfacing but that CDBG cannot be used for certain streets (the meeting referenced Overtown) and cannot be used in some cases when funding sources and rules disallow it. Staff also noted that SEPTA bus routes affect eligibility and cited a proposal led by CETA to repave a stretch of Melrose that was not paved last year.

Council members pressed for incremental priorities—identifying high-volume or oldest roads first—and for the city to continue pothole repairs while a longer-term program is developed. Miss Gaffney said staff would send the HRG study and meet with the councilmember to review liquid fuels funding and other options.

The transcript’s discussion is a staff briefing and request for follow-up; no formal action or vote on a repaving plan was recorded in the meeting transcript.