Column: Springfield road repairs day late and dollar short

You may have noticed a lot more orange cones than usual this year.

Our elected officials have finally come to the realization that they need to fix our infrastructure if they want to keep their jobs. You’d think this would be Politics 101 material... The leadership of our township likes to spend money on everything but the things they are statutorily required to maintain.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s wonderful that we are finally fixing more than one or two streets every year. We have a $40 million problem and until recently we were only spending somewhere between $500,000 to $1 million per year in a vain attempt to make a dent in the problem. As evidenced over the last 20-plus years of “leadership” by our township trustees, that simply isn’t cutting it. We have more failed streets than ever.

Campaign season is in full swing and the two trustees up for re-election this year are going around bragging about fixing 26 streets this year. What they won’t tell you is that several of the larger projects, like Meredith Drive, Daly Road, John Gray Road and Winton Road, are being done by Hamilton County and aren’t costing the township anything. That won’t stop them from taking all the credit. However when people have called the township to complain about conditions on these roads, who do you think they shifted the blame to?

They claim many repairs haven’t taken place over the last 20-plus years because they tried to pass a 1-mill road levy four times and each time it got shot down by the voters. They talk about the $2.5 million in cuts from the state a few years ago (but the JEDZ tax brought in $2.6 million last year and will bring in even more this year), but why weren’t they fixing the roads before the cuts, when we had additional revenue coming in? Where did all that money go?

Now that the JEDZ is here, they suddenly have a windfall of tax dollars to do all these repairs? Come on folks, something here just doesn’t add up, and since the online checkbook on the township’s website only goes back to 2013, we will never know where all that money went…

It wasn’t long ago, our elected officials said that the JEDZ money wouldn’t be going toward road repairs, that it would only be used for operating expenses and maintaining current services. They wanted to ensure that the senior center and our parks didn’t have to close. I campaigned on the issue two years ago to use JEDZ money for roads, and like magic, that’s what’s happening now.

How long are we going to put up with this? When are we going to start holding these elected officials accountable for pulling the wool over our eyes for so long? It’s time for new leadership in Springfield Township. Let’s drain the swamp like we did last year on the federal level and make Springfield Township great again.

Kyle Hufford is a candidate for Springfield Township trustee. He is also a business owner and concerned citizen.