Lima road repair program passes on third reading

LIMA - As the 2026 Pavement Preservation Program prepares to repair roads following its approval Wednesday, mending Lima council relations is an equal priority for the public works department.

The ordinances to implement Lima street resurfacing and crack sealing projects each passed by 6-2 votes at a special council meeting in council chambers, with Third Ward councilor Jesse Lowe and Seventh Ward councilor Jon Neeper dissenting both times. While councilmembers disagreed on the program's merits, public works director Amy Harpster is hopeful for greater collaboration in the future.

The street resurfacing initiative will cover 6.18 centerline miles across 20 street corridors at $1,276,036.80, including manhole adjustments, shoulder reconditioning, pavement markings and dura-patch repair as needed. The crack sealing phase will treat 3.1 miles across 16 city streets at a maximum cost of $52,755.

Neeper echoed his sentiments from Monday's first reading of the ordinances, saying the program is "an absolute waste of money" and that "we're not doing the streets that need to be done." The councilor mentioned Delphos Avenue being on the secondary list for "15 years" and that one resident told him they "couldn't remember the last time the 600 block of Cole Street was paved" in 34 years of living there.

Neeper's proposed remedy is to put the analysis in council's hands, supplemented by resident input.

"We need to change the criteria of how we are evaluating the streets, whether we go to the councilors and say, ‘Give me your top five streets' every year and we've got this much money to spend," Neeper said. "We all drive in each of the wards and look at the five streets, and if the five of mine aren't as bad as the other ones, then we do the other wards."

Council president Jamie Dixon countered that the Pavement Management Group's analysis removes bias while evaluating streets in need of repair, ensuring the services are "equally dispersed among the council." He believes the group should be trusted to do the job it specializes in.

"A lot of us on council, we all have a job or we've retired from a job, and we were the professional at that job," Dixon said. "Some are morticians, some are beauty, some were HVAC maintenance guys, some were gas. And me, being in the profession I'm in, I'm not going to tell the gas guy how to do his job when he's dealing with gas and he's got the training."

To make future debates less tense, Harpster aims to get in dialogue with councilors and residents earlier in similar processes going forward.

"Everything will be reevaluated, and everyone can always do a better job at communicating it, and now that certainly will be our focus," Harpster said. "… I make sure that we communicate back and get the information for the councilors and constituents, so that's part of what we do."

The street resurfacing and crack sealing projects will begin in the summer and reach completion by the end of 2026.

For questions or more information on the program, contact Harpster at 419-998-5508.

Reach Peter Bonasso at 567-242-0399.

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