To the editor:

Why are council members talking to Kitsap County about road repair and maintenance? It’s simple, the city needs to do more road work with its limited resources.

Currently the city identifies and prioritizes those streets that need repair and contracts road repair and maintenance to the lowest cost private contractor. Other cities within Kitsap County have agreements with the county to perform some of their road repair and maintenance instead of outsourcing the work to private contractors. Council members Blair, Bonkowski, and Lester held a preliminary conversation with County Commissioner Robert Gelder to discuss areas of potential collaboration in public works.

In this city budget season, road repair continues to be topic of interest and a second meeting is planned to discuss the areas of collaboration more fully.

These discussions in no way impact the local control of our streets. The city will determine which streets need what repair, prioritize the maintenance, and manage the contract. If, and that’s a big if, the city council believes that it is in the best financial interest of the city to enter into an agreement with the county for road repair and maintenance the result that our residents will see is better streets for less cost.

STEVE BONKOWSKI

Bainbridge Island City Councilman