Council approves spending $10.8M on equipment, workers to maintain streets

The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night unanimously approved spending an additional $10.8 million on equipment that will allow the city to better maintain and improve crumbling roads.

The proposal, approved 24-0, will allow the Department of Public Works to purchase equipment as well as hire an additional 36 people, or six crews, to perform street maintenance work.

“We need to maintain the streets and make them last longer,” said DPW director Dan Parker.

The council members were in full support of the proposal, as many have expressed concern about road funding and road-quality issues.

“I'm 100 percent yes,” said Jared Evans, a Democrat.

Mayor Joe Hogsett and the council previously approved an emergency measure of spending $14.5 million from the city's reserves to repair the city’s roads and the potholes that litter them.

Hogsett earlier this year called the condition of the roads “deplorable" during the height of the city's pothole season.