BUCHANAN, Mich. -- The City of Buchanan is dealing with more potholes than the average season this year and a social media post made by the city's official account on Wednesday attempts to explain why the issues are worse this year than in years past.

"What we’re experiencing is a result of a lack of asset management planning, combined with policies pushed at the state level, including funding decisions, changes to revenue sharing, and the impacts of Proposition A and the Headley Amendment. This is the larger context of the problem faced by communities across Michigan, and unfortunately, there’s no quick, short-term fix."

On top of what the city calls a lack of planning by the state, it seems the roads in Buchanan were not constructed properly and are more susceptible to weather damage.

"To make matters worse, many of our roads when originally constructed were not built to proper standard with a base of sand and stone that supports proper drainage and instead on a base of clay which does not drain well," the post states.

"When water gets below the road surface it cannot [percolate] through the clay very well and sits trapped between the asphalt and clay soil. When the freeze and thaw cycles hit that water just destroys the roads."

The city's plan for this spring is to begin assessing the damage.

"That said, we will be working to create a plan to assess and address based on best practices," the post states.

"City staff will be conducting PASER ratings this spring and entering the data into RoadSoft. This will help us create a comprehensive overview of the condition of our street network, allowing us to begin addressing deferred maintenance and develop a long-term plan that aligns with the community's needs."

Additional plans include using the city's engineering team to help use its resources efficiently, and meeting with contractors from the current downtown project to explore the possibility of adding road repairs to their contracts.

"If that’s not feasible, we’ll quickly release bid packages to other paving contractors," the city said. "Our preference is to work with the contractors we already have under contract, as we’ve established unit prices with them, which will help us start the work faster once the asphalt plants open."