As residents along Sarah Keyes Way continue to demand that street be paved, city officials are determining how much it would cost to pave each unpaved street in the city.

City Manager Bobby Roberson is developing a document that includes a cost estimate for paving each unpaved street in the city, which has 1.45 miles of unpaved streets. The City Council would review those estimates during its upcoming budget sessions before making decisions on paving streets, he said.

Roberson told the council during its meeting Monday that Powell Bill funds would be used to pave streets. Powell Bill funds are an annual allocation the city gets from the state’s fuel tax. Previously, Roberson said paving Sarah Keyes Way would cost about $30,000.

During the council’s meeting Monday, residents who live along Sarah Keyes Way said they are tired of waiting for the city to pave the street. The unpaved road’s condition continues to worsen without anything being done to improve it, they said.

City officials reminded those residents that the city spent $13,000 on installing curbs and gutters along a section of the street so the sale of a house along the street could be completed and closed.

Ravonda Moore, a Keys Landing subdivision resident, has been leading the effort to get the city to pave Sarah Keyes Way. She’s appeared before the council during several of its recent meetings to make her case. Moore and her neighbors have told the council they don’t care about a dispute between the city and the Rev. David Moore, chief executive officer of Metropolitan Housing & Development Corp., developer of the subdivision. The city contends Metropolitan owes $238,000 to the city for failure to meet certain requirements related to the Keys Landing subdivision. The city and Metropolitan worked together in developing the residential area. That dispute also included debate on whether the city or Metropolitan should pay for paving the street. The city looked at these options in regard to paving the street.

• leave street unpaved and continue with street maintenance on current schedule;
• pave the street using Powell Bill funds in the upcoming budget, which would delete the funds for street maintenance for remainder of the city;
• appropriate funds from city’s fund balance to pave the street;
• assess the cost of paving the street to adjoining property owners with a timed repayment program approved by the City Council;
• do not pave the street until Metropolitan pays the city what it owes;
• ask the city attorney to develop a “demand payment” letter requesting Metropolitan pay what it owes to the city. One of the conditions would include a provision that if the city is not paid what it is owed, the city would foreclose on the subject property and sell it a public auction.