City engineer urges keeping asphalt program level as state matches shrink

Chris Chambers, the city engineer, told the council the engineering department is not asking for many budget increases and is focused on maintaining the city's asphalt and paving program at its current level.

"We are not asking for too many, changes. We were asking for, the biggest thing is to try to keep the, asphalt at the same level as it was last year," Chambers said, explaining the department will try to "max out" Community Crossings requests while acknowledging the state match is capped. He said the department previously worked with about $2 million for smaller street sections but must now choose priorities after allocations tightened to about $1.5 million.

Chambers described the LTAP rating system the city uses to prioritize streets for state funding and said the city currently has roughly 424 sections rated 2 or 3 that need work. He warned winter damage that dropped many sections' ratings last year will force staff to prioritize the most critical segments rather than spreading smaller repairs widely.

Council members asked follow-up questions about project sequencing and matching funds; Chambers said the city will submit requests in August and try to assemble projects near the $2.2 million mark to maximize combined funding but that the state match remains effectively capped at $1,000,000.