Allen County Council Members want Fort Wayne and other local cities and towns to take a hard look at whether they can pay for their own bridge repairs.

A formal letter may be sent out within days suggesting a big change in how local bridge maintenance is handled.

That terrible bridge collapse in Minneapolis last summer has government leaders everywhere thinking about keeping bridges in good shape.

But finding the money to do that and figuring out who's on the hook to pay the tab, those are tough questions.

Allen County Council Thursday urged the County Commissioners to make a formal request to cities and towns in the county to look inward to see if they can afford upkeep on the bridges in their own jurisdictions.

The request would let those cities and towns know if you can't, you need to ask county council for a hike in the wheel tax and surtax, and then agree to relinquish the extra tax proceeds so the county can do the repairs.

The cities and towns may be put under some pressure to make a quick reply to such a request.

Bill Brown/R) Allen County Commissioner: " The commissioners can make the decision to give the bridges back to these municipalities at a certain date and I think that will encourage them to get up to speed with figuring out what their plans are, so we'll put a date to it."

Tom Smith/(R) Ft. Wayne City Council: " And that's a legitimate request to make, because clearly the bridges need to be repaired, there's going to be a funding shortage, how do we go about spreading this burden out?”

The game plan would appear to put off an immediate hike in the wheel tax and surtax.

County leaders seem to be saying; cities and towns you've got to ask us for such a tax hike.

That would give county officials some political cover with their constituents.