By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – The City of Bloomington has posted on its website the list of nearly two dozen streets that will be getting resurfaced or repaired this summer.

Public Works Director Jim Karch told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin city engineers drive all the city’s streets to find the worst ones, but he said crews try to give priority to areas that draw the most complaints. That’s why, he said, residential streets can no longer be forgotten.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Karch on WJBC.

“You can’t just focus on the major roads because a lot of the residential (streets) have been ignored for decades,” Karch said. “We have got to find the balance to be able to do both.”

The city plans to spend about $3.8 million on road work this summer, but Karch says that’s nowhere near enough to fix everyone’s streets.

“We needs about $8- to $9 million per year to really get the streets in better condition,” Karch said.

Karch said city engineers inspects every street every three years and priority is given to the ones in most need of repairs.

“Picture there’s fires all over the place and you have only one fire extinguisher, so you are pointing it in the best way you can,” Karch said.

The city council in April awarded a contract to Rowe Construction of Bloomington to handle the street improvements.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].