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As the owner of a landscaping and lawn-care business, Mark Ozment knows that time is money, especially during the growing season.

So it's maddening to sit every morning at the end of his street, Talmaga Lane, waiting for the slightest break in the accelerating wall of traffic along Horse Pen Creek Road.

"It's ridiculous. It can take five to seven minutes," Ozment says. "I believe it's one of the most dangerous roads in this city from 7:30 to 8:30 or 9."

Transportation engineers for the city of Greensboro agree. And they're ready, willing and able to fix the problem — by turning Horse Pen, all 3.4 miles of it, into a four-lane road divided by a median and bordered with sidewalks.

The catch? It would cost $26.9 million, which is $26.9 million more than the city has available for new street projects.

In fact, Greensboro has more than $205 million in such short-term road needs to fight traffic bottlenecks and provide new travel links.

Yet the city is so strapped for transportation cash it has a backlog in basic upkeep: A third of Greensboro's existing streets are rated "poor," one in five needs repaving, and 75 miles of sidewalk await repair or replacement.

What's more, people are clamoring for more and better sidewalks, greenways and public transit.

Part of the solution, city officials say, would be passage of a substantial bond package this fall similar to what voters approved in 1988 and 2000.

"I'd hate to be living in this city today if we had not done them in '88 and 2000," City Councilman Robbie Perkins said recently of the earlier bond packages, which together provided about $150 million to projects that included widening such major arteries as West Friendly Avenue, South Elm-Eugene Street, Merritt Drive and Guilford College Road.

The council has yet to decide whether there will be another bond referendum this November, let alone what money or projects it would include.

But city transportation engineers have prepared a summary of overall needs and cost estimates that add up to nearly a half-billion dollars. They'll soon take a pared-down version of that summary to the council for consideration, said Adam Fischer, the city's acting director of transportation.

He, Perkins and other transportation leaders know that if the council approves any referendum, it's likely to be enough for just a fraction of the need. Perkins thinks $200 million is the most the council might endorse.

And the council will have no shortage of projects to deliberate. The list includes:

* Congestion busters: road projects weighted toward burgeoning northwest Greensboro to deal with heavy traffic stemming from development and the new western Urban Loop.

The projects range from redesigned intersections along Battleground Avenue to reworking Horse Pen Creek, Lewiston and Fleming roads. Other projects target Benjamin Parkway, North Elm and North Church streets, and Stanley Road.

* Development seeders: projects tilted toward eastern Greensboro that focus both on improved mobility and jump-starting the economy in parts of town with room to grow.

Such projects include extending both Cone Boulevard and East Florida Street to link up with other heavily traveled roads.

The Florida Street extension — between Lee Street and McConnell Road — would serve the Gateway University Research Park being developed by N.C. A&T and UNCG.

"If you had to identify one project that could make the most difference, that would be it," said Perkins, who is chairman of the Metropolitan Planning Organization that oversees transportation spending in Greensboro.

* Walk pavers: Up to $47 million in new sidewalks along major thoroughfares and neighborhood streets. City administrators say that without a significant influx of money, they can respond to only a fraction of the growing demands for new pavement.

* Quality-of-life improvements: more than $50 million in greenway and streetscape projects, such as the proposed redesign of Summit Avenue as it enters the center city and passes over Murrow Boulevard.

A $10 million renovation would spruce up downtown's northeastern gateway by reworking Summit and giving that part of Aycock Historic District a face-lift.

Among other potential quality-of-life projects, a $26 million Downtown Greenway would encircle the center city, and the last phase of the Battleground Rail Trail would be built on abandoned Norfolk Southern right of way.

* Transit enhancers: improvements to public transportation could include up to $2 million to add shelters at bus stops now unprotected from weather.

The city has more than 1,000 bus stops, but only 55 have shelters. The green metal structures are built of vandal-proof materials with solar-powered lighting and information boards.

Without question, any money pumped into maintenance would be a bond referendum's least glitzy component. But city administrators say it is equally important as any of the projects that are glittery new.

With nearly 950 miles of streets, Greensboro should be repaving them at least once every 20 years. But the city has only enough in its budget to make the rounds every

80 years.

To make matters worse, construction and material costs have skyrocketed, said Mike Mabe, manager of the city's streets division.

This spring and summer, the city's $2.1 million repaving budget will tackle just 21 miles of city street, Mabe said: "Only five years ago, that money would have got us 50 miles."

Existing bridges and sidewalks that grace city-maintained streets also need repair work that Greensboro can't afford to do right now, he said.

The greatest challenge for transportation leaders might be to build a sense of urgency about the need for increased transportation spending.

By and large, Greensboro has avoided the gridlock that envelops many communities of its size and larger. Residents have helped city officials achieve that with their willingness to invest in such initiatives as Wendover Avenue and Bryan Boulevard before they were absolute necessities.

The transportation department's Fischer thinks it's important to revive that sentiment in this age of higher costs and projects taking longer to design and build.

"We just don't want to fall behind," Fischer said. "We've been able to stay ahead of the curve up to now and we think it's important to keep it that way."

Not surprisingly, Greensboro landscaper Ozment wants to see what a complete proposal would look like before deciding how he might vote.

But traffic is so bad on Horse Pen Creek and Fleming roads near his home that he is hard-pressed to think of a better way government could spend the people's money.

"When you're dealing with lives and automobiles and trying to create a better economy," he said, "it's worth it."

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com