
Street Committee Meeting
October 19, 2021 - 12:30 p.m.
The meeting was called to order at 12:27 p.m.
Present were Arnold Knox, Director of Streets; Jim Bodenhamer and Jennifer Baker, Committee members.
Arnie showed the Committee a spreadsheet of past street rebuilds along with current and scheduled rebuilds for 2022, including their costs. There was discussion of the upcoming overlays that should be completed by the end of November.
The Street Report for September 2021 was reviewed. Arnie reported to the Committee new asphalt has been put down on Burnett Drive which completes this project. Asphalt tickets have yet to be received for a final cost, and as of September 30, 2021, the cost to Burnett Drive is $560,658.99. Jennifer asked if this will be three lanes like the first part that was rebuilt to Bucher Drive. Arnie said, yes and it will be striped, but will be done when all the overlays are completed so the contractor can complete striping at one time. The Committee complimented the finished three lane street.
Spring Street is another project that has been completed but is waiting for new asphalt to be put down. The cost to Spring Street is $179,781.04.
Overlays through September 30 totaled $387,649.42. Arnie told the Committee that Buttercup Drive has been completed, Kentwood Drive in Northern Hills, along with Leisure Lane and the cul-de-sacs along Driftwood Lane behind Baxter Lab, are scheduled to be overlaid. He said the biggest overlay will be Cardinal Drive from 5 South to Highway 62. He plans on having all old asphalt dug out from Spring Street to 5 South, but the asphalt from Spring Street to Highway 62 will be milled. He added, he was going to publicize a notice about a week before the Cardinal Drive overlay is set to begin. The cost of Overlays this year will be close to $600,000 but that is because there were no overlays done last year. He said this total cost is two years' worth of overlays.
Jennifer asked if the two construction crews have been combined to one. Arnie said, yes and no. They are combined on one job because he is so short of concrete finishers. It seems when a crew is pouring, at times they need finishers to assist from the other crew, so he put the crew that has completed Spring Street on Demetree, very close to Cooper Street. This way they can go back and forth working concrete and not have to travel across town.
As far as employees, he has three AID employees, and said he and Sue from HR have four interviews this week.
Jim asked if there was a list of contractors to use for striping the streets. He also mentioned he had been asked if South College belongs to the city or if it was still part of the state jurisdiction. Arnie said yes, there are three or four contractors that do striping and added, that part of South College belongs to the city now. Jim said he had gotten a call from a resident telling him the striping on South College has faded and is hard to see. Arnie told the Committee he plans on having that restriped when the rest of the streets are completed towards the end of November. He is going to use a thermoplastic type that has reflector beads in it. This will be highly visible at night.
Continuing with the Street Report, Arnie told the Committee the rebuild of Cooper Street, Louann and Demetree has begun and the total cost to date is $40,887.02. He said both crews are there, one working on Cooper Street has the culvert completed and are now pouring new curbs to 5 South. The other crew is at Demetree. They have run into some rock to hammer out but it's going well.
Maintenance for the month of September is $22,018.59 and this cost will go up. He said he was at a meeting this morning with ASU about the Christmas lighting program that is in the works. Jennifer asked what kind of work the Street Department will be doing there and Arnie said mostly bucket truck work. Jim asked how much manpower he will need. Arnie said he plans on having a couple guys starting next week putting displays out. He added, he purchased about 200 pelican totes to store the lights in along with a 20-foot storage container for them. He plans on purchasing another 3 or 4 trailers for the Christmas decoration storage. Jennifer said the new Christmas lights that had been purchased last year for the power poles were very nice and asked when those will be put up. Arnie said those will go up the week of Thanksgiving.
The Budget Summary was reviewed, and Arnie said it looked good. He estimates approximately a $2.4 million carryover into 2022.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:56 p.m.