Unlike many motorists who seem to take glee in cutting their own trail on city streets, Mary Thurston is a drive-between-the-lines kind of gal.And she’s just not seeing them.”The lack of street striping is a constant pet peeve of mine,” she said recently. “I see huge strips of asphalt with no stripes all around town. What’s going on? Is the city getting cheap, or what?”Well, the guy who oversees street striping in the city said that in an ideal world he could use more paint trucks and crews and perhaps a change to super-durable but very expensive road paint. But with the city hemmed in by tax-and-spending limits and a weak economy, that isn’t likely to happen soon.Still, said principal traffic engineer David Krauth, the city’s two massive street-striping machines, each manned by a crew of two, repaint what the pros call every minor and major traffic collector in the city each summer, sometimes multiple times.But by this time of year, those efforts have been ground away by time, snow tires and the sand and anti-skid chemicals laid down for storms.There is an additional factor in the disappearing stripes: paint that wasn’t up to snuff.Krauth said the city had great luck with the water-based, high-build paint it purchased in 2005. But there was a change in ownership of the paint company at the end of that year, and apparently a polymer that makes the paint more durable was removed from the formula without the city’s knowledge. Krauth said the city noticed over the past two years that the paint was not lasting as long as it once did.This year, the city bid a new contract, specifically asking for a paint with the polymer in it, and switched companies. He expects better luck with the better paint.Last summer, Krauth said, crews laid down 71,000 gallons of paint costing $450,000. About $180,000 more was spent for 497,000 pounds of the tiny, spherical glass beads that are immediately sprinkled onto the wet paint to give the lines reflectivity at night.But he said crews need warmer weather before they can start striping operations this year. The road surface needs to be 50 degrees and rising to allow the paint to dry in the few seconds before cars driving behind the paint truck drive over it.The normal painting season starts in mid- to late March and continues through October.So, Krauth said, Mary Thurston should be seeing lines before her eyes pretty quickly.”This time of year is the worst time of the year for those stripes,” he said. “Be patient. We want to get out there. We’re champing at the bit. I’m serious.”Mary Thurston will be waiting . . . and watching. And she might even do something more. Something gallant, something born out of frustration:”When I die, I’m going to leave this city some money for paint.”(Readers: Krauth said residents are welcome to notify the city of minor or major arterials that need paint, although city crews have a pretty darn good idea what needs to be painted. Call 385-6720 or e-mail trafficeng@springsgov.com)