Loyal council discusses road construction schedule

By Valorie Brecht At the last Loyal Common Council meeting, the council discussed upcoming street construction projects as part of the city’s five-year street plan. Two sections of road are scheduled to be repaved this year: North Division Street from Mill Street to Spring Street, and North Union Street from Mill Street going north 195 feet (about to the Legion food stand). However, it is not a guarantee that they will be done this summer, due to another project that may deplete the city’s street budget. The county plans to repave Main Street/County Highway K from the Purple Park to Chickadee Road starting May 19.

“It (our upcoming street construction schedule) was contingent on the fact on what our budget looked like after South Main Street/County K is completed,” said city deputy clerk Viki Pieper. “Because the county is doing the driving lanes, but we are responsible for the parking lanes of that all the way (from the Purple Park) to Chickadee. So, we do have curb and gutter; a lot of that was completed last year. But it may, once the county takes off that first layer of asphalt, it may need to have those parking lanes come completely up.

Please see Loyal roads, page 11 Loyal roads,

from p. 1

“So we’re hoping, best case scenario, that it won’t be an expense, but it could be a $30,000 to $40,000 expense and then we would not be able to complete these street projects (Division and Union streets). But the utility committee wanted to make sure we had that plan in place and bid out so we could hire someone to complete that this summer if we have the funds.”

The city has solicited bids, which are due May 20 at 4 p.m. The work includes pulverizing the street surface, compacting the base material, and paving with asphalt with an average thickness of 3 inches for Division Street and 4 inches for Union Street. The city is not obligated to accept any bids.

American Asphalt has been the only company to bid on Loyal’s street work the past few years. Pieper said the company would have a plant nearby this summer because they would be doing work in the area, so that should help reduce the cost.

“Just to bring the new members up to speed, Division got cancelled last year because up by the industrial park, it cost too much. We budget $120,000 a year, and that maxed us out. So, if we do have enough left over, we want to do Division this year. It just depends on how things go down there,” added council member Tim Froeba.

The reason the city is only planning on doing 195 feet of Union Street is because of budget constraints and that is the part that needed it the most.

“We had another part that popped up after this winter so we may have to look at that,” said Pieper. “Ideally, we would like to do the library parking lot as well.”

The city does not have a definite timeline for when the streets would be repaved, but Pieper said that American Asphalt always tries to get them done at least a week or two before Corn Fest.

Street plan The City of Loyal follows a five-year street plan when deciding which streets to repave every year.

“This is just so we’re not going in blind every year,” said Pieper.

Unlike the county, which aims to redo all 301 miles of county highway every 20 years, the City of Loyal does not have a specific rotation. Rather, the streets are redone based on budget and need.

“We have our city guys go out and look and assess which spots are the worst, where crack sealing isn’t going to help any longer,” said Pieper. “Some streets might get bumped up if the condition is worse. For example, we did South Union Street two years ago but it gets a lot of wear and tear, so we might do it again sooner than a street that’s not traveled as much. With the splash pad going in this summer, we might move up Park Avenue in our street plan because we expect it’s going to get more use.”

Gravel bids The council also discussed gravel bids for an unspecified amount of 5/8-inch crushed granite to be placed on West Elm Drive, a portion of street on the edge of town, west of Tim’s Body Shop. They received a bid for $10.24 per ton from Slobodnik Gravel and Excavating in Withee. They also received a bid for $10.35 per ton from Paul Bugar Trucking in Loyal.

“I had talked to a member of a nearby township and they said, ‘Why don’t you buy it from us?’ We could get a better price,” said Froeba. “We don’t need to approve this tonight; we could wait until after they have their meeting. It’s not going to be that much, anyway, but if we do it with them, then we don’t have to worry about it.”

“They were going to do it for us anyway; they were going to spread it for us,” said council member Dave Geier.

“I thought we had talked about it at the utility committee and said we don’t want to do the township; we want to do our own bid process,” countered Pieper.

“The way I look at it, we’re looking at a local person for 10 cents more a ton. I would make a motion we just do that because of the local connection,” said council member Tom Bobrosky.

“I think to follow the bidding process and be considerate we should go with them. We said the bids were due at a certain time; that’s why we did it as we did. This was legally done. They got it here on time. So I think this time around, we should go this route.”

The council voted 6-2 to accept the bid from Paul Bugar Trucking, with Geier and Froeba voting against it.