Download the City of Gladewater Street Index
Download the City of Gladewater Street and Drainage Infrastructure Assessment
There are 230 streets on the City of Gladewater’s new roads inventory.
One, Hendricks, is in the ‘Excellent’ category after undergoing extensive maintenance. There’s a decent number of good roads, and the largest portion, about 110 roads, are marked ‘Fair.’
That said, the city’s assessors applied ‘Critical’ to about 10 percent of streets in the community.
The index is the foundation of a data-driven effort to get the entire community on the same page when it comes to Gladewater’s ever-aging roads – and how limited funds can be strategically invested to make them better, one street at a time.
“Our city has not had any kind of road infrastructure improvement plan,” Mayor Brandy Flanagan told council members last week. “It was something that was important to me, that we have a systematic plan in place.”
The freshly-minted streets guide – find it at GladewaterMirror.com – was crafted with help from East Texas Council of Governments’ records followed by boots-on-the-ground. (Notably, not every local roadway is included, only those for which the city is directly responsible.)
“We rated them… City staff went out and laid eyes on every single road,” Flanagan said, logging their findings in the shared spreadsheet: “What the condition of the road is, what the drainage issues are, things like that.”
Paired with the index is a 12-page rough draft ‘City of Gladewater Street and Drainage Infrastructure Assessment & Improvement Plan.’
Instead of a subcommittee effort, Flanagan asked for the entire council’s initial feedback on her first-attempt. Their notes will refine the documents for official presentation to residents during another Mayor’s Town hall this Fall. The public feedback will evolve the program further before it’s submitted for official council consideration and potential adoption, hopefully by the end of the year.
“Review it, put your two cents in with it,” she said. “We want it to be the best it can be, so we want the input.”
It’s pretty self-explanatory, council member Stoney Stone said, and it will help guide the city’s elected officials, leaders and staffers as decisions are made about street repairs and upgrades, tied to the data.
“If a street really deteriorates fast, it can be reshuffled,” he said.
Another key element is annual review around budget season, Flanagan added. This year’s is imminent.
“I made sure to put in the language this is a living document, it’s not a static document,” and follow-through is also essential: “One thing we identified as an issue with Gladewater is we get a plan and don’t stick to it.”