Residents who live on a gravel road in east Durham continue to make a plea to the city to pave it.

"As I ride around this city, I see other streets are being paved so I want to know why Public Works does not follow council's requests," said Vivian McCoy, a Durham resident who's been vocal about the conditions on Harvard Avenue. "On Harvard Avenue the pipes are still full of mud, grime and rocks. That means ... when it rains ... it's going to be stagnated on Harvard Avenue. It's a shame and disgrace these residents have to keep putting up with this after 20 years."

McCoy carried a petition dated August 2009 to the city council work session Thursday. She said there was another petition in 1996.

"Our normal process for paving a dirt street that is reconstruction from a dirt or gravel street to an asphalt-type street with curb and gutter is a petition process where we require a majority of property owners who own the land adjacent to that street to sign a petition in favor of that project," said Ted Voorhees, Deputy City Manager. "My understanding is that there's never been a petition submitted for Harvard where 50 percent or more of the property owners signed in favor of the project."

McCoy shook her head as she sat in the audience and said "that's not true."

Voorhees said the street project is in a preliminary design mode now. He said the down economy could actually help in getting the street paved.

"We just got bids for the last round of construction of new streets that we awarded not too long ago; those prices came in very good because of the economy which now makes us believe that Harvard will likely be in the next round of funding," he said. "The signs are good. The storm water analysis is coming in good. The prices for the last round they were constructing were very good so it's on track. It is in the next batch that moves into final design."

Public Works is set to give another presentation on Harvard Avenue in September. Some council members said they would like to see a better system of documenting the process on paper when it comes to getting the street paved.

"This, in my opinion, is an urgent matter because it's been pending before us for a long time," Councilman Howard Clement said. "Let's get something in writing to avoid any misunderstanding as to who said what when. It seems like every meeting I go to there's another slant on this same project. There's another story on this same project."