La Cygne council poised to continue planning before making decision on streets
- Roger Sims, Journal Staff
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
(Warning: this video is noisy. Consider turning down your volume before playing.)
The La Cygne Public Works Department ran a machine called the Asphalt Zipper to crush a deteriorating roadbed on Fifth Street in a demonstration. After the surface is chopped up, it is stabilized with concrete or an admixture, rolled and then topped with cold patch asphalt mix until a more stable road surface is applied. (Video by Roger Sims / Linn County Journal)
By Roger Sims, Journal staff
LA CYGNE – Improving the road base and laying down a 4-inch asphalt surface over a four-block stretch of roadway could eat up an estimated $150,000 out of La Cygne’s city budget. That price does not include the reworking of ditches and culverts by city workers to prepare for the paving project.
That was the message that city Public Works Director Dan Nasalroad gave to the La Cygne City Council at its meeting on Wednesday, July 1. He added that cost estimates he received for different treatments were substantially lower, however, the asphalt paving would be a standard approach to reworking what he calls the worst street in the city..
Nasalroad said the other options for the 1,500 feet included grinding off a layer of pavement and widening narrow areas before apply chip-seal for up to $75,000, and applying 1- to 2-inch layer of leveler followed by chip-seal for up to $80,000.
In contrast, he said industry standard for a simple chip-seal application would be $90,000 for the four-block project.
In his example for street repair/replacement costs, Nasalroad used a four-block stretch of Seventh Street south of Market Street/Kansas Highway 152, currently that street narrows toward the last block on the south of the dead-end road. That stretch is about 1,500 feet long, and that was the basis he used for a phone discussion with a paving contractor to get an estimate of the cost..
While the council now has some hard figures in front of them, it still is unclear what, if anything will be done before cold weather sets in this winter.
At a June 18 workshop on streets and stormwater drainage, it became apparent that the council wasn’t necessarily ready to embrace an action plan until after the Nov. 2 election when voters will decide whether to amend a 1% sales tax. The ballot question will ask whether the current 1% sales tax can be altered from going to paying off the swimming pool and providing for pool and park maintenance to using 10% of the money for pool and park maintenance and 90% for street repairs and maintenance.
If approved, the shift in sales tax is expected to funnel around $270,000 into street repairs and resurfacing annually with approximately $30,000 going to pool and park maintenance. That will also include stormwater management because many of the problems causing damage to the road base comes from ditches that don’t drain properly. (See separate story)
The first town hall meeting on the sales tax issue in May left city officials hopeful that voters would approve the sales tax change. While residents had questions about what the two 1% city sales taxes had been for in the past, by the end of the town hall meeting, the consensus seemed to be that the shift in expenditures of the current pool tax was supported.
At the June 18 workshop, City Clerk Jodi Wade led the council through steps necessary for planning the repair of streets and implementation of a stormwater plan developed by engineering firm BG Consultants.
She suggested that to help win more voter support for the issue, the council can sponsor more town hall meetings about the tax and discuss street repair priorities as well. She even suggested that the council might use a method where residents are given choices about what they see as priorities for street repair. When the city developed the comprehensive plan, residents used adhesive dots to choose priorities, and the same method could be used on streets, she said.
Wade said that the city can’t just overlay streets with asphalt because they are too deteriorated for that. She also said that many streets are narrower than the minimum 17-foot width set by city code.
She also pointed out that the city has just over $971,000 in a 401K account that is for the special highway fund. She also said it has taken 10 years to build that nest egg by transferring funds remaining at the end of each year.
The city has postponed some street repairs until major water and sewer upgrades have been completed. And Wade pointed out the some areas, like Broadway need to be milled down because another layer of asphalt will put the street level at the top of the curb.
The consensus of the council at the workshop seemed to be to wait until after the November election on the sales tax.
Councilmember Jerome Mitzner urged the council to give some thought about what they want.
“What is our vision, what do we want to see happen?” he asked. “That’s the kind of things we need to have in our minds before we bring in a consultant.”
While council members cannot actively campaign for the sales tax issue, they can provide information to constituents. A booth providing information is expected to be set up for the Blast in the Park this Saturday, July 11.
Nasalroad planned to start with some street repairs this year. In May at the request of at least one council member, he scheduled a demonstration of a machine called the Asphalt Zipper. The machine, which comes in different widths, is essentially a rototiller for pavement. Set at adjustable levels, it grinds up pavement and with the addition of portland cement or a spray mixture before it’s compacted with a roller, it makes a stable and durable road bed that can have paving or chip-seal treatment applied over it.
The cost of the machine that would work on the city’s backhoe was about $240,000, and Nasalroad told the council it did everything he wanted it to do. The demonstration took place on north Fifth Street, where the road base has deteriorated, leaving furrows in the pavement that drop several inches below the surrounding road surface.
While the council opted instead to set a planning workshop on streets, possibly delaying the workshop until July, Nasalroad was obviously frustrated because with the lead time to order the machine it could be fall before the repairs would start. The council did not act on Nasalroad’s purchase request.
Part of Nasalroad’s plan was to have the county apply a chip-seal surface over the street once the road bed had been prepared. However, Nasalroad said that he was having a difficult time contacting the county public works administrator, an issue made more difficult after the administrator resigned his post. Meanwhile the Linn County Commission is interviewing for replacements.
The council is expected to conduct more workshops to better define their plan for the streets and stormwater management.
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