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Omaha road grinding halts as officials work to change policy

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The city of Omaha has temporarily stopped grinding some neighborhood streets into dirt roads as officials decide whether to pay for repairing those streets instead.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Mayor Jean Stothert gave the directive about a week after city officials held a public meeting with Omaha residents whose streets were going to be ground up.

Stothert wasn't at the meeting, but she says she heard that residents expressed concern with a city policy that says the Public Works Department won't maintain residential streets that weren't constructed to current city code. Under the policy, the city turns the crumbling streets into dirt roads unless property owners pay to repave them.

Stothert says she intends to offer policy change suggestions in her 2017 budget proposal, which is scheduled to be unveiled this month.

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