Sutherlin to borrow money to pave entire Central Avenue

City councilors have been working on the multi-million Central Avenue project for about a year and a half. The project now includes improving sidewalks and landscaping in the downtown area and bringing this infrastructure into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The councilors voted 5-2 to get an additional $500,000 through a state loan at their Feb. 13 meeting.

The city will begin construction on the road this spring. There are no easy detour routes to bypass traffic, city manager Jerry Gillham said, so most construction will take place at night. It should last six months.

The loan will enable them to pave the street beyond Bi-Mart to the Applegate Place past North Grove Lane.

City manager Jerry Gillham said Central Avenue has not been paved since the 1990s. As a result, the street is cracking with jutting edges and several small potholes. There are places where the sidewalk abruptly ends or dissolves into a pile of broken cement.

Originally councilors were limited on how they could spend the $3.2 million the city had in store. 

About $2.2 million of those funds came from the Oregon Department of Transportation for assuming responsibility of a portion of Central Avenue.

The state once owned a portion of Central Avenue extending from Comstock Road to Calapooia Road. Sutherlin assumed responsibility of that portion in 2015, and in return, the state gave the city money to fix it up.

Douglas County once owned one block of Central Avenue — the downtown segment extending from Calapooia Street to State Street. The county will pay Sutherlin about $671,000 to assume responsibility for it.

The remaining funds came from state gas tax revenues.

Gillham suggested councilors apply for the $500,000 loan through ODOT to extend the Central Avenue paving to city limits. Gillham estimates it will have an interest rate between 2.2 and 2.5 percent.

“That decision was based on generally recognized best practices in street engineering in that the longer you let any portion of the asphalt continue to deteriorate, the costs will double and in some cases triple down the road,” he said. “So in the long run, it’s cheaper to borrow the money now and do the whole street.”

In addition to paving, the Central Avenue project includes repairing curbs, sidewalks and drainage ditches; improving bike lanes; adding pedestrian buttons at signals; and removing some street trees and adding tree grates.

Gillham said in the long run, the project could improve the aesthetics and safety of Sutherlin’s main road.

“This will save the city probably hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars over the next 20 years,” he said. “It will beautify downtown, and it will allow people with disabilities and the elderly and children to walk safely along Central Avenue. It’s a good deal for everybody.”

Councilors Forrest Stone and Frank Egbert voted against taking a loan out through ODOT.

“Central needs to be done, there’s no doubt,” Stone said. “But we should only go as far as our money will take us, and not borrow any more than we have to. We’ve been seriously borrowing money for the last six years.”

He named the city’s new $21.2 million wastewater treatment plant as an example. The city had to take out a $18.5 million loan with a 1.97 percent interest rate from the state.