Street Maintenance Challenges Follow Reduced Aid

5/6/12 – Wisconsin communities are finding it more challenging to keep up with their street maintenance, after the state reduced its local road aids. This year’s total amount was cut by 30-million-dollars, to around 403-million. Many communities are at least trying to maintain their previous street improvement schedules by cutting corners elsewhere. Green Bay officials cut employee benefits and did not fill 12 vacant public works jobs. In the Green Bay suburb of Bellevue, some employees took a pay freeze to keep the roads from crumbling. Mary Forlenza of the state D-O-T said it’s true that road maintenance has suffered in some places – but the cuts in road aid were necessary to help the state get rid of its three-billion-dollar budget deficit a year ago. Forlenza says her agency is doing what it can to help, but it’s not a lot. She said if there’s a community that does not spend all its road aid, it could go to another place where it’s needed.