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Baltimore Buys Equipment To Pave Roads

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- While many cities across the nation are privatizing services, the city of Baltimore is doing the opposite to get more streets re-paved.

Mary Bubala reports the city purchased a brand new piece of equipment to take care of business.

This is what $120,000 can buy: a new paver to smooth over rough city streets. There are plenty of them in Baltimore and the city says the investment is paying off.  For every mile paved, the city is saving about $10,000 over what it would pay a contractor.

"I keep saying we are doing what families and businesses are doing all over our country, and that is doing more with less," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

In the Loch Raven neighborhood, residents' patience has finally paid off.  Fenwick Avenue and other streets are getting resurfaced.

"We pay sufficient taxes.  We all received those tax bills the other day and now we are getting something as a result of it," said Shirl Byron, Loch Raven Improvement Association.

"There were a lot of cracks and weathering.  You could see the grass growing up through the streets and it was an indication that the neighborhood was going down so getting the streets repaved, we see that Baltimore cares for Loch Raven," said Leslie Barksdale, resident.

The city says by buying the new paver, not only are more streets getting much-needed attention, but it's also keeping city residents employed.

Resurfacing projects in the city used to mainly be completed by contractors, but now 30 city workers are trained to operate the new paver nad paving has increased 60 percent over last year.

"I am really happy there are times when we can take the resources we already have and show that they can be more effective by purchasing the right equipment," said Bill Henry.

"You can make the house look good but if the street looks terrible, it makes the house look bad," said Howard Melton.  "Right now we got it all together and I love that."

Worth mentioning with so much attention on the re-paving happening downtown for the Grand Prix, the city says over the last four years, more than 90 percent of the street work has been done outside of downtown.

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