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Pittsfield Looking at Repairs on Unaccepted Streets
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
02:40AM / Wednesday, February 10, 2016
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Commissioner of Public Services David Turocy brings the issue of unaccepted streets to the City Council on Tuesday night

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city has some 25 miles of roadways that it cannot completely service.
 
Commissioner of Public Services David Turocy brought the issue of unaccepted streets to the City Council on Tuesday night. Turocy says one-eighth of the city's streets are unaccepted and therefore he is restricted in how he can maintain them.
 
"Our hands are really tied with the current restrictions of what we can do on unaccepted streets," he said.
 
A City Council subcommittee will look deeper at the issue to develop a management plan for those roads.
 
Overall, Turocy says a "curb to curb" pavement job is not allowed by the city code. He says the city can do some pothole work but not much more. Further, the city cannot use any state Chapter 90 funds on those roads.
 
"The big issue is the cost for this," Turocy said, estimating the cost of the needed repairs on those roads at $20 million. "There is so much to do to bring them up to city standards."
 
Unaccepted roads can be found all over the city but they aren't owned by the city — they are owned by property owners on the streets, who own to the middle of the road.
 
Ward 7 Councilor Anthony Simonelli said his ward has more unaccepted streets than any other ward. 
 
Simonelli said he wants the 80 roads in his ward to be maintained by the city at a driveable level but doesn't necessarily want the roads to become city streets.
 
"I'm not looking for the unaccepted streets in my ward to be accepted. I'm not looking for a million dollars per road. What I am looking for is to bring them up to some acceptable measure so people feel like they are getting their tax money worth," he said.
 
Ward 2 Councilor Kevin Morandi, however, said he wants city funds to be focused on accepted streets that need work, and the unaccepted roads should be secondary. 
 
"While I see the need for unaccepted streets to get addressed, especially minor repairs, but the focus should be on the accepted streets," Morandi said.
 
Turocy said the majority of city funds do go to city-owned ways but the unaccepted streets are open to the public and are being used on a daily basis. He said those owners pay taxes, too, and should get some level of repairs — levels of repairs he is restricted to providing because of the city code. 
 
"I think there are some options. I am sympathetic to the plight of people on unaccepted streets," Turocy said.
 
The commissioner said there are already about three miles of roads that are in a condition to be accepted without any additional work. Those include the section of Valentine Road from Lakeway to Peck's Road. Should the city accept more roads, the city's Chapter 90 allocation rises.
 
Ward 4 Councilor Christopher Connell said he'd like to see numbers showing what it would cost for the city to accept 10 miles of repair and accept 10 miles of unaccepted streets and what that would do for the Chapter 90 funding. 
 
Turocy suggested looking at changes to the city code, figuring out what exactly the city can offer for repairs to the roads, and ultimately create a menu of options to manage the streets.
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