When George Lippencott moved to Lawrence last year, he noticed something about the curb in front of his home.

It was slowly disappearing.

“It has something to do with the material they use to remove the snow in the winter,” he said. “It started before I got here.”

Lippencott called the Public Works Department for help. City crews inspected the area and agreed the curb and driveway were their responsibility. Along with the intersection near Lippencott’s west Lawrence home, they will be repaired this fall.

If Lippencott had called next year, he wouldn’t have been so lucky.

“Next year, we’ll have to say no,” Director of Public Works Chuck Soules said.

When city commissioners told staff to cut more money out of the 2004 budget, the ax fell heavily on Public Works. The department lost $150,000 from its mill and overlay budget (about a 10 percent reduction) and $50,000 from its budget for purchasing asphalt (about a 33 percent reduction).

“The amount of work completed next year will go down,” Soules said. “We’ll find a way to make do.”

But Soules is worried about the future. Streets have a specific life span, usually around 30 years. As they get older, the quality of streets drop off. A street that could have been fixed for tens of thousands of dollars if caught one year, could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars just a few years later.

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“If the cuts continue, the overall quality of the road network will deteriorate,” he said.

Soules plans to “make do” by making more temporary repairs, such as filling potholes with asphalt instead of resurfacing the area around the hole. The repairs will last for a time, but they’re effectively Band-Aids. Potholes are caused by problems underneath the roadway. Without getting at the root of the problem, the hole will show up again and be more expensive to fix.

“It’s a compounding effect,” Soules said. He estimated a mile of road that should be repaved next year wouldn’t because of the cuts. “That means instead of being able to pave a mile of road in 2005 (for the same money), we’ll only be able to pave half a mile.”

Lippencott is just happy his street is getting repaired, and he praises the city for being so responsive. Next year, Lawrence residents in similar situations may find their cries for help falling on deaf ears.

The Lawrence City Commission cut funding to the public works department by more than $300,000, which means fewer roadwork projects will be completed. Do you agree with the city commission’s decision? Yes, it’s better to cut infrastructure projects than employees. Yes, the city spends too much on infrastructure anyway. No, the roads in Lawrence are deteriorating enough as it is. No, the city could have found money elsewhere. ¢See the results »Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.¢Related stories:City in Crisis series