Following a study by Snyder and Associates Engineers firm in Atlantic of street conditions in the city, Street Superintendent Derald Andersen and Snyder’s Dave Sturm created a list of priorities for fixing the worst streets. City Administrator Doug Harris told the City Council during their meeting Wednesday night, there are six sections of streets in the proposed improvement program, which need to have an asphalt overlay this year, and one section needs to be reconstructed. The plan also calls for the seal-coating of 52 blocks of streets.

Harris says without seal-coating, the road surface begins to oxidize and water seeps into the cracks, which causes the road to quickly deteriorate. He says the City doesn’t have the money to just “Let the roads go and then rebuild them.” Therefore the plan is to use a new process to “micro-seal” 10 blocks and see how effective that is. The roads selected for the micro-seal, should be good for 10-years before milling and an overlay is needed. Harris said the cost of the Street Improvement Projects this year amounts to $945,000.

He said the City has options when it comes to bidding-out the overlay projects. He said the because current contract the City has with PCS Concrete and its asphalt subcontractor Henningsen Construction is not yet complete, the City could ask for a “Change Order” which allows the price to be held, but the engineering for the added projects would need to be done. Harris expects to gather additional information for presentation to the Council during their next meeting, and a possible vote.

During his report to the Council, Harris was asked by Mayor Dave Jones, if there would be a sewer rate increase this year, to which Harris replied “No.”