A Lawrence public works street sweeping vehicle, right, unloads sand and salt into a city dump truck Monday after cleaning curbing along St. Andrews Drive. City crews are out washing and sweeping city streets and assessing potholes after the melting of snow and ice over the weekend.

Monday's temperatures soared into the 60s, affording fourth-grader Carolyn Weiler, 10, the opportunity to spend time outside, stepping through the water puddles in Cordley School playground. The weather will turn colder the rest of the week.

Curse those who dreamt of a white Christmas.

City leaders are now dealing with the messy remnants of holiday snowstorms – meaning potholes, dirty streets and a stack of complaints about people who failed to clear their sidewalks of snow.

First, the potholes.

“We have them, that is for sure,” said Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works. ” … And I can tell you that they annoy us all.”

Drivers have noticed.

“Sometimes in intersections there’s so many potholes you can’t miss all of them,” said Waneta Turner, a Baldwin City resident who drives regularly in Lawrence.

Soules, though, said the city is becoming more aggressive in trying to prevent potholes from occurring. The city is spending $300,000 per year on a crack-sealing program that is designed to seal places where water can get beneath a road’s pavement.

Water freezing and thawing underneath a street is a prime cause of potholes.

For decades, the city didn’t routinely seal cracks. This year marks the third full year of the program, which sealed 104 miles of streets in 2007.

By the end of 2008, the crews will have made their way throughout the city with the crack-sealing program. But Soules said the crews intentionally have been avoiding the busiest streets. That’s because doing crack sealing on streets such as 23rd, Iowa, 31st and other busy roads would cost significant amounts of money for traffic control. Soules said the department wanted to get as many streets done as quickly as possible.

That has left many of the major arterials more susceptible to potholes.

Soules repeatedly has told city commissioners that the $5.3 million budget for street maintenance isn’t enough to slow the rate of street deterioration that is occurring. Soules has said the department needs about another $1 million per year for street maintenance, but city commissioners have been reluctant to fund the increase because it likely would require a tax increase.

Commissioners have expressed an interest in a sales tax increase for street maintenance, and have discussed putting the issue up for a public vote, perhaps as early as August.

Street cleaning

Come August, city crews probably still will be working on cleaning up the city’s streets from the recent snowstorms. The streets already are clear of snow and ice, but large amounts of salt and sand remain.

Soules said all three of the city’s street sweeping vehicles are in operation, but he said the work was slow going.

City crews clean streets essentially in the same order that they plow them. The largest streets get cleaned first, and downtown also is a high priority. Residential streets are the last to get cleaned. Soules said city crews strive to get a street sweeper to every street in the city at least once, but preferably twice, a year.

Sidewalks

One piece of infrastructure that the city isn’t cleaning is residential sidewalks. Removing snow from sidewalks is the responsibility of the adjacent property owner. City code gives property owners 24 hours after the snowfall ends to clear the sidewalk.

If they don’t, the property owner could be subject to a $20-per-day fine. But don’t expect that fine money to solve the city’s budget woes.

That’s because after the city cites someone for violating the ordinance, they are given five days to correct the problem before the fines begin. By that time, the snow could have melted.

Meanwhile, the complaints mount. Brian Jimenez, code enforcement manager for the city’s Neighborhood Resources Department, said his office has investigated 80 cases of sidewalk complaints in the first seven days of 2008. In all of 2007, the department investigated 172 cases.

Jimenez said the city likely will review the snow-shoveling ordinance. He said his department does hear concerns from people that the five-day grace period makes the ordinance of little use in getting sidewalks cleared in a timely manner.

He said some communities have instituted a program where violators aren’t given a fine, but rather are made to pay for a city crew or a contractor to clear the walkway.