The decision Wednesday by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to place the streets designated for paving at the top of the list for the city’s sewer line assessment program was an intelligent decision.

It’s a decision that in the long run could save the city money and take care of two needed projects at the same time.

As City Attorney Nancy Thomas said Wednesday, “We are in the process of designing street improvements to be paved and we felt it was necessary to do our sewer assessments and make any repairs that are necessary to our sewer system prior to paving the streets, so we’re not digging up new pavement.”

There is no debate the 17 designated streets in the city’s North and South wards need work. Most of the selected streets are among the most used and most worn in the city and in dire need of repair— Mission 66, Washington Street, Halls Ferry Road and Warrenton Road. There is also the issue of the city’s consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency that requires the city to assess, map, upgrade and repair 10 percent of the city’s aging sewer collection system over 10 years, and some of those lines run under the street slated for repair.

Aging, broken lines have already affected city streets over the past three years, causing depressions and potholes in some streets and forcing city sewer department crews or contractors hired by the city to make costly, time-consuming repairs.

And with the city getting ready to spend $2.3 million of a two-phase, $4.6 million paving program, it makes sense to get an idea of what needs to be fixed under the streets before putting a new surface over the top.

North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield in May pointed out the necessity of fixing the subsurface problems before taking care of the streets.

Some of the streets, he said, “have (road) base problems because of old water and sewer lines under them. That means we’ll have to repair or replace those old lines while we’re doing the work, because you don’t want to pave them and then have to dig them up five years later because of a bad road base.”

That’s thinking in the right direction.

If the city is going to fix the streets, it needs to do more than just put a new coat of asphalt and new striping on the top. It needs to get below the roadbed, repair damaged or weak lines, rebuild the roadbed, get a good foundation and then pave and stripe it. That way, we have streets that will last maybe 10 to 20 years and not just five or six.

The board has approached its capital improvements program in an intelligent way. It got the wish list from department heads, pared it down to the bare necessities to meet the most pressing needs, and will finance it with a flexible bond issue that gives city officials the ability to handle more pressing priorities and not put the city over its head in debt.

Doing the sewer assessment and making repairs ahead of fixing the roads may delay the paving project, but in the end it will mean a better street.

And doing it all at one time is good, responsible public service.