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<br />Green, Shannon <br /> <br />From: <br />Sent: <br />To: <br />Subject: <br /> <br />Alexander, Cynthia <br />Monday, November 07, 2005 1 :50 PM <br />Green, Shannon; Dolby, Michael <br />FW: Grand Prairie: quarter-cent tax helps streets make the grade <br /> <br />For our meeting on street maintenance sales tax. c <br /> <br />-Original Message- <br />From: Lewis F. McLain, Jr. [mailto:lfm@Citybase.net] <br />Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 3:41 PM <br />To: Alexander, Cynthia <br />Subject: Grand Prairie: quarter-cent tax helps streets make the grade <br /> <br />Quarter-cent tax helps streets make the grade <br /> <br />Grand Prairie: Program rates roads, fixes those that need it most <br /> <br />12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, October 2~ 2005 <br />By KATHY A. GOOLSBY/The Dallas Morning News <br /> <br />Grand Prairie residents approved two quarter-cent sales tax proposals since 1999 to <br />improve city parks and streets. City officials said they wanted to give residents visible <br />bang for their bucks. <br /> <br />Two years after the first sales tax vote in 1999, Sycamore and Fish Creek parks had new <br />playgrounds; new rest rooms were installed at Waggoner Park and Prairie Lakes Golf <br />Course; and paving was repaired or replaced at Nance-James Park, Mountain Creek <br />Soccer Complex and Kirby Creek Nature Center. <br /> <br />Dozens of other park projects were either finished, under way or in the planning stages. <br />Voters must have liked what they saw, because two years later, in November 2001, they <br />approved a quarter-cent sales tax for street improvements. That tax was re-approved in <br />May. <br /> <br />Evidence of the success of the street improvement tax is harder to pinpoint, especially in <br />the newer neighborhoods. That's because the tax can only be used to maintain roads, <br />not build new ones. <br /> <br />Grand Prairie streets are evaluated annually and given a grade of A" B, Cor D. Most of <br />the work is done on the latter two grades, with the goal being to raise as many as <br />possible to an A or B level. Seventy percent of the roadways are rated A or B, compared <br />with 60 percent when the program started. <br /> <br />"Some we can go in and put on a protective overlay of asphalt," said Ron McCuller, city <br />public works director. <br /> <br />1 <br />