Tulsa’s proposed four-tenths of a cent public safety tax could mean better street striping.
Streets and Stormwater Director Terry Ball said one option would be hiring an entire five-person crew.
"Basically, the crew would perform what we call long-line striping, which is driving down the roads and striping," Ball said. "And then, also what they would do is they would do thermoplastic, which is the more, I guess you'd say hardy striping."
Ball estimates that would cost $284,000 in fiscal year 2017 but increase more than $400,000 a year in 2021 because they’d have to start buying materials.
Another option is to hire three new workers and pull two sign workers to create a complete striping crew.
"It would lessen the impact on what it would take out of the safety tax to do this," Ball said. "And then what it does is it gives us four dedicated employees who all the time are getting to work on signs."
That option would cost about $100,000 less initially than hiring an entire striping crew, and it would do the same work.
The third option is hiring a contractor for the thermoplastic, which Ball wants to replace in five-year cycles.
"It would depend on funding. It may be over a five-year period we get it all striped, or if we have more money we might do 30 percent of it or 50 percent of it," Ball said. "It would just depend on the funding that was available for contract services."
Ball estimates it would cost $1.5 million for a contractor to lay thermoplastic in downtown’s central business district.
The four-tenths proposal would mean about $3 million a year for streets.