If Humboldt voters approve a half-cent sales tax to fund a 10-year street improvement project, Allen County will help with reconstruction.
Mayor Nobby Davis told commissioners Tuesday the consensus was that hard-surfaced, asphalt streets would be a better approach to improvement than chip-and-seal. To accomplish that he asked the county to help by grinding away street surfaces with its reclaimer, a machine designed to gnaw up asphalt. County crews then would shape the streets and provide some base rock.
“We felt we needed to do something,” Davis said. “Our streets are under the weather.”
The proposed sales tax was expected to generate about $90,000 a year and permit reconstruction of 20 to 25 blocks annually. Ballots will be mailed to Humboldt voters on Aug. 21 and must be returned to the Allen County clerk’s office by Sept. 11.
Davis came to commissioners, he said, to lay ground work for street improvements.
“We’ll schedule work a year in advance so Bill (King, director of Public Works for the county) can do it at his convenience,” Davis said.
King said his only concern was that manholes be well identified so the reclaimer didn’t chew into one.
“That could tear up the drum,” a large cylinder with hardened steel teeth, he said. “Replacing the drum would cost $40,000 to $50,000.”
Once the streets’ surfaces are ground, the material could be recycled, but not for the streets themselves.
“There are a lot of creative things we can do with the material,” such as improving alleys and other places where traffic isn’t heavy, King said. “You can put down a layer, pack it down and there won’t be any dust.”
County crews traditionally have helped with street improvements in smaller cities that otherwise would have difficulty finding funds to maintain streets. King said a project would start in LaHarpe “in a couple of weeks.”
“It makes sense to help them out,” he said.
Dick Works, commission chairman, said his concern was that “you get details worked out ahead of time,” which is what brought Davis to Tuesday’s meeting.
As for the county, King said a rebuild of Texas Road, from 1400 Street (old U.S. 169) to Carlyle, would be completed soon.
“We’re going to shoot oil on the road Thursday,” he said.
COMMISSIONERS agreed to spend up to $1,500 for Richard Hurst, Humboldt contractor, to explore what lies beneath a tin facade on the Humboldt Senior Center.
