Marc on Better Roads

The condition of its roads says a lot about a community. I have heard from residents for years that they are tired of dealing with the same buckled concrete and persistent potholes year after year. They’ve been waiting for the current Town leadership to make their roads a priority. What residents have been hearing from City Hall is all about Uptown expansion, but that leaves the current residents out in the cold, wondering why their municipality doesn’t seem to care about the roads they drive on every day. The citizens of Normal are asking for better roads.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with planning for new opportunities, our deteriorating streets are a more pressing need. Many of our roads are not even slated for repair in the next five years; examples include Lincoln Street, the Savannah Green subdivision, and historic Route 66. Fixing our roads doesn’t mean we cease moving along development or caring about growth. But it’s pointless to move ahead with new projects if we are not going to take care of the existing problems—the value of new projects will be negated by unaddressed issues with our infrastructure. We have got to pay more attention to the real needs of our Town. We must invest more in our roads in order to catch up with these infrastructure problems.

In this video, I show the deterioration of the roads and show why it is time for a change in leadership.