Business View - May 2015 165
INFRASTRUCTURE
that public works director Joseph Beno described as
“aging,” thanks to a slower-than-previous hiring rate
over the last 10 to 15 years.
The slowdown has resulted in collection of “experi-
enced” personnel, he said, which translates to high-
quality training opportunities for the new staff that
is brought on. About 10 percent of the public works
roster exited in 2014 after a change in the city’s re-
tirement system – which triggered an isolated hiring
uptick – but outside of that Beno said about two per
year are added to a staff of 100.
As for the condition of the infrastructure, his assess-
ment was relative in nature.
“I would go on the average side, in the middle,” Beno
said. “There are plenty of cities around that have worse
streets than we do. Definitely, our infrastructure under
the streets is very old. We’ve been doing four of five
streets of water mains per year that get replaced, and
the sewers now take up a lot of time – 100-year-old
sewer pipes that aren’t straight, flat and round any-
more.
“Those are the things that we’re working on.”
Summers, who’s up for re-election later this year,
deemed things a C-plus overall; while City Engineer
Mark Papke said the pavement condition rating has
remained within the “good” range for the last sever-
al years while allowing that some streets need more
maintenance than others due to traffic flow. The city le-
verages its funds by partnering with other agencies to
fund projects. In 2015, The Shelly Company is paving
a major business corridor, Madison Avenue, through
Mayor Mike Summers
