Gastonia wants to borrow $75 million for roads, sidewalks

Gastonia voters will decide in November whether to allow the city to borrow money to improve Gastonia's roads, sidewalks, and other transportation infrastructure around the city.

If Gastonia voters approve the plan, Gastonia will borrow $75 million through the sale of bonds to improve streets, highways, sidewalks, bridges, and other traffic-related necessities.

Bond proceeds must be spent within seven years, but that deadline could extend to 10 years, City Manager Michael Peoples said.

The city will have 20 years to pay off the debt, and they hope to pay the debt using money generated by the county's coming property revaluation.

If the revaluation is 20% to 25% higher than property values are now, property taxes will produce the revenue the city needs to pay off the debt, Peoples said.

Gastonia city officials hope to use a large chunk of the $75 million — up to $20 million — to repave city roads.

Another problem the city hopes to address is manholes that need to be repaired.

The city has 806 manhole covers. Out of that total, 719 are in good condition, 65 are in fair condition, and 22 are in poor condition, according to Peoples.

The highest concentration of manholes in need of inspection are on Franklin Boulevard from the FUSE District to the Eastridge Mall, Peoples said. Other areas of interest include Garrison Boulevard between South Chester Street and South New Hope Road, and the majority of Broad Street and Union Road.

Peoples said that part of the reason for borrowing the $75 million is that the city hopes to take advantage of the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress in November. That bill provides "unprecedented amounts of funding" for transportation, Peoples said, but a lot of that funding requires that the funds provided must be matched locally using money from city coffers.

Having the $75 million would help the city do that.

"So the thought is, it would be nice to have our own financial tool to provide that match to make us more competitive, to hopefully leverage these federal dollars here in Gastonia," Peoples said. "And so we are looking and evaluating how we're going to be applying for those programs to leverage local dollars."

City officials also hope to make the city more walkable by building sidewalks, especially in areas like bus stops where there are likely to be pedestrians. Peoples said that while there are newer developments that have sidewalks, as well as older, core neighborhoods and business areas that have sidewalks, in between some of those places, there are areas that aren't connected. The city is looking to fill those gaps.

"Walkability is a goal and has been a goal of the city. We have an improved pedestrian plan for the entire city, a greenway plan for the entire city. We're developing and should be finished pretty soon with a bicycle plan for the entire community," Peoples said. "So we just need to identify some of the things that need to be connected."

School safety also is important to the city.

They hope to improve the sidewalks and pedestrian walkways near city schools, "just trying to make it as safe as possible," Peoples said.

City officials also hope to improve traffic congestion in some parts of the city by adding turning lanes on roads that do not have them. Peoples specifically mentioned the intersections of New Hope Road at Franklin Boulevard, as well as Lowell Bethesda at Cramerton Road, as possibilities.

"I think this is just a very common sense approach at addressing real need, visible need, if you're driving through the city and being responsible for the next generation," Peoples said.

Reporter Kara Fohner can be reached at 704-869-1850 or at kfohner@gannett.com. Support local journalism by subscribing here.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gastonia wants to borrow money to improve roads