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2021-07 Meeting Minutes

Street Committee Meeting

July 20, 2021 - 12:30 p.m.

 

The meeting was called to order at 12:30 p.m.

Present were, Arnold Knox, Director of Streets; Jim Bodenhamer, Susan Stockton, Jennifer Baker and Paige Evans, Committee members.

The Street Report for June 2021 was reviewed.  Arnie reported the Burnett Drive rebuild project was at the last section to be made to 3 lane is expected the end of summer for completion.  The crew is about halfway down from Beard Street moving toward Buttercup Drive, and added, the total cost is at $444,009.77.    

The rebuild project at Spring Street is going well.  The intersection at Club Boulevard is set, new culvert is in, and the crew is now working on curbs.  The cost to date at Spring Street is $59,961.73.  

The Overlays will be starting hopefully at the end of this week.  Atlas Asphalt got into the Covid situation with their crew, so their work has been set back.   Arnie said he anticipates them starting at the end of this week.  The cost for the June Overlays is milling the asphalt that took place, which is $18,024.16.  The next bid opening for Overlays will be this Thursday, the 22nd, which will see the streets completed by the end of October.  He reported that Cardinal Drive from 9th Street to Highway 62 will be done, also Kentwood in Northern Hills is on the schedule.  Jennifer commented that Cardinal is a very rough street.  Arnie said there is an average of 4,000 cars per day that travel Cardinal Drive.  Jim suggested, since Cardinal Drive will be a big job, maybe notify the Press to announce the work so drivers will use alternate routes.  Paige also suggested, since it is a highly traveled street, something on Facebook with a map showing alternate routes would be good.    

Arnie reported that Maintenance costs were low last month, with trimming, mowing, and painting totaling $11,994.70.  He added, most of that crew were milling streets for the Overlays. 

The Budget Summary was reviewed, and Arnie reported it looked good and expected about $2.5 million will carry over to next years' budget.  Jim asked if he was allocating any money for the Highway 5 South project.  Arnie said no, but if he were to be bidding out the project, then yes, he would put money away for that.  Since the City will be working on it, it will come out of the planned Budget. 

The State Aid project for next year was discussed.  Arnie explained to the Committee that he and the mayor are going to meet with the highway department next week to discuss the State Aid project.  He said every three to four years the city will come up on the list for approximately $250,000 in overlays paid for with state sales tax.  He added, he has scheduled Hickory Street, Dyer Street, along with 2nd, 8th, Elm Streets to be overlayed.  He said, Alma wanted to get into the old sewer lines on both Hickory Street and Dyer Street for repairs before this is to be done next year.  Arnie said the last time the city had overlays from State Aid was in 2017 and said, generally what we do as soon as the State Aid project is done, the next year, January, is to come up with another list of about a quarter million dollars of overlays that would suit the state's criteria.  We will then wait for our name to come up the list, which will be a three or four year wait.   This is always good to get some asphalt down with taxpayer money instead of ours.  He told the committee he is glad we didn't come up this year for the overlays because he wanted Alma to get her sewers done before the asphalt.   He told the committee that's the last thing he wants to happen is get new asphalt down then have to rip into it for repairs to be done, and they agreed.

Paige told Arnie and the committee that while she was out of town, she drove around and noticed the condition of streets compared to ours and said everyone should be proud of our city streets and the Street Department, because when you drive on our streets, you do not see potholes, they are non-existent.  You don't realize how nice our streets are until you go out of town to other cities and see the condition of their streets.  Paige then explained, you take Cardinal Drive for instance, that road is heavily traveled, which is expected to be the way it is.  She said she commends Arnie and his department because they probably don't get thanked enough.  Susan agreed they do a great job.   Arnie said he gets a lot of phone calls for little things, and gets right on those, and he keeps up on the maintenance.

The meeting adjourned at 12:50 p.m. 

Wide view of downtown Mountain Home