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Mayor Jill Holland Addresses Potholes, Future Street Paving

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McKenzie Mayor Jill Holland wrote the following information concerning city streets.
We hear you loud and clear, and ask that you please bear with us this year. We’ve heard from many of you regarding the potholes in our streets and areas that need paving, and we agree. We are on the schedule for Pavement Restorations Inc. to repair the water cuts at the end of November. After a cut is made and filled with gravel, it takes several months for the gravel to settle before it can be paved, and many times this can create rough roads.
Each year we budget money for paving city streets. However, this year because of the virus and shutdowns we were advised to cut our budgets. Therefore, we did not budget for additional projects like paving. We only included those recurring necessary expenses and those that were part of grants that we had previously received. This included no raises for our employees, and combining job responsibilities of employees who retired.
Although McKenzie has held our own through the past several months, we do not know what the next few months will bring. We are hoping our economy will continue to improve, and unless it takes a downturn, we are planning to include street paving in the 2021-2022 budget. Thank you for understanding, and we hope patching the water cuts will help until we can resume our schedule for paving.