They’re called city commissioners, but many days you could probably change their title to street commissioners.

As eight candidates vie for three spots on the Lawrence City Commission, seldom a day goes by that they aren’t asked about the condition of city streets, and what they plan to do about them.

The current crop of city commissioners spent much of 2008 talking about how to catch up with a system of streets that is deteriorating at a rate faster than city crews can fix it.

Voters in November overwhelmingly approved a new 0.3 of 1 percent sales tax to fund infrastructure projects, including street repair.

But that hasn’t put an end to the issue. The next commission will be the one that largely determines what specific street projects get funded with the new sales tax money.

And, of course, there’s another road issue that seems to have made its way onto every campaign trail of the last two decades — the South Lawrence Trafficway, and whether the road should be built through the Baker Wetlands.

Here’s a look at the views the candidates have on several infrastructure-related issues:

Issue: Street maintenance

At one end of the spectrum is Lance Johnson. His views on the condition of the city’s streets are simple.

“They are failing, and it is because we’ve been taking Band-Aid approaches,” said Johnson, who is a civil engineer.

He said he’s also not convinced the city has found the right plan yet to fund infrastructure maintenance for the long term. He said he’s concerned about relying on the city’s newly approved sales tax because it will automatically expire in 10 years, unless voters go to the polls and approve an extension.

On the other end of the spectrum is Dennis Constance. Constance said he hears plenty about the condition of city streets from voters, but said he thought the city had done “reasonably well” given the financial challenges of the last 18 months.

Some candidates questioned the city’s priorities when it came to street projects. Both Price Banks and Gwen Klingenberg said they had questions about a recently completed $6 million project that rebuilt Kasold Drive just north of Clinton Parkway. Banks, who lives along that stretch of road, said he wondered whether the city would have been better off doing several smaller projects.

“There are streets and curbs all over town that are broken up,” Banks said.

Klingenberg said she agreed that Kasold needed to be rebuilt, but said the city should have considered some projects in older areas of town first.

Tom Johnson said he’s generally fine with the plan the city has put forward to tackle streets — although he would like to see a few more residential streets on the repair list. But he said the problem with City Hall has been following through with plans.

“It seems like a lot of stuff that was supposed to get done just hasn’t gotten done,” Tom Johnson said.

Aron Cromwell said he wants the city to perhaps rethink some of its sales tax spending plans now that federal stimulus funding is available for road repair.

“We should spend the stimulus money first,” Cromwell said.

Klingenberg, though, takes an opposite view. She said the city should come up with new projects that aren’t currently on the list for sales tax funding. She said if the city uses stimulus money to fund sales tax projects, she is concerned that the sales tax ultimately will get used for projects that voters never intended.

James Bush said he’s noticed large discrepancies in streets depending on which part of town you are in. But he said he thought the city’s sales tax plan was a step in the right direction.

Mike Amyx, who is the only incumbent in the race, said fixing city streets should be the city’s top infrastructure priority. He said he thought the city was making steady progress on the issue now that the sales tax had been passed.

“I think we’re finally in a position to make a good dent, but it will take quite a while to get there,” Amyx said.

Issue: Street funding

Bush said he sees a potential battle developing over how much city funding should be devoted to street maintenance. In addition to the three-tenths of a percent sales tax for infrastructure, the city in 2009 also has about $5 million in other revenues that are devoted to street maintenance.

The sales tax was presented to voters as being additional money to be used for streets and infrastructure. Bush said he’s concerned there may be pressure to take parts of the $5 million and reallocate it to other city uses.

“I think it would be disingenuous to reduce any of the general fund money that is going to street maintenance,” Bush said. “We made a promise to ourselves to do more street maintenance.”

Some candidates, though, said they would consider using some of the general fund money for other purposes. “I think we have to look at completely restructuring how we have done some of this,” Constance said. “I would be in favor of looking at that option.”

Cromwell also said he would be open to reallocating some of that general fund street maintenance money on a temporary basis. Klingenberg said it would not be her first option, but that she also could not rule it out.

“Right now, I’m not putting anything off the cutting board, except for human services,” Klingenberg said.

Lance Johnson said he generally was not open to the idea of redirecting that money. Amyx also said he believed residents would not be in favor of it, except in an extraordinary situation.

Issue: The SLT

Candidates also are split on whether the South Lawrence Trafficway should be built through the Baker Wetlands, which is the route state and federal officials are currently pursuing for the road.

Constance, Cromwell and Klingenberg are all strongly opposed to the route, which is known as the 32nd Street option.

“In general, the approach from the beginning on this street was done horribly,” Cromwell said. “I certainly don’t want to be part of driving straight through the wetlands.”

Constance and Klingenberg both said they thought the bypass should go south of the Wakarusa River, although Constance said he has “never been that crazy” about the project in general.

Amyx, Bush and Lance Johnson all said they strongly supported the 32nd Street route, which includes a mitigation package to create new wetlands in the area.

“By not building the South Lawrence Trafficway, this community has suffered by having a lot of traffic on local streets that really should be on a bypass,” Lance Johnson said.

Tom Johnson and Price Banks didn’t express enthusiastic support for either route. Tom Johnson said he reluctantly believed that the focus should remain on a 32nd Street route, since it appeared a south-of-the-river option could not be developed in time to take advantage of stimulus funding.

Banks said he thought both options had problems, but that he would not take any action as a city commissioner to try to convince federal and state leaders to abandon plans for the 32nd Street route.