La Cygne council pushes street pilot project back to Sept. 16 meeting
- Roger Sims, Journal Staff
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
By Roger Sims
LA CYGNE – The La Cygne City Council at its meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 2 pushed back discussion and a decision on which street in the city will be the first to be upgraded under a project meant to see how streets will be repair going forward.
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It appeared from a discussion during a workshop last June that the La Cygne City Council would wait until the sales tax issue was decided by voters in November before getting to work on repairing city streets.
However, following a second workshop in late July, the council shifted to being willing to begin a limited street project. And on Wednesday, August 8, the council affirmed that it wanted to begin street work before November.
The question on the November ballot for La Cygne voters will be whether to change where the money from one of two sales taxes levied by the city goes. One 1% sales tax has been used to reduce the amount of property taxes in the city, and that will remain unchanged.
The 1% sales tax currently used to payoff the swimming pool debt and provide a maintenance fund for the La Cygne Community Park will change if voters approve the measure. But the swimming pool bond has been paid off, and the council wants to use 90% of those proceeds to repair streets and 10% for park maintenance.
A “yes” vote on the issue will be a vote to shift a large chunk of the swimming pool funds to street repair.
The consensus of the council has been to do a limit street repair project, which is also expected to involve fixing drainage issues including reworking ditches and replacing culverts where necessary.
Dan Nasalroad, city public works director, earlier this summer contacted a paving company to get an estimate on repaving south Seventh Street from Market Street/K-152 to where it becomes a dead end, about four blocks. With the estimate in hand, the council narrowed its sites on using that as a starting point for its street and drainage program.
However, an overlay on a city map of approximate property lines and below-ground utilities reveal some difficulties with that section. First, the street narrows considerably on the south end. Second, an underground water line runs close along the west side of the pavement, and finally, there is some uncertainty whether the drainage area at the south boundary of the city would handle improved drainage along the street.
City Clerk Jodi Wade suggested that, because of the water line, any widening of the street should be on the east side of the street. That could put it closer to the city’s easement on the east side.
After some discussion about the issues with Seventh Street, Councilmember Kent Wade asked, “Is there an easier street we can do/“
Apparently, the council members who contacted public works Director Dan Nasalroad indicated that a portion of Seventh Street both south and north of Market Street/Kansas Highway 152 was the choice.
On Monday Jodi Wade said that those sections of Seventh Street have been surveyed and the location of utilities marked.
Nasalroad in a workshop in August suggested that surveyors mark the four corners of each intersection that coincide with where the intersecting streets should be laid out. Relying on surveys of streets are important because many of the streets may have been repaired or paved over without know the exact location according to city plats.
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