Streets still hot topic at council
Street maintenance was again a topic of discussion at the June 15 Holyoke City Council meeting, and almost 20 residents attended.
As he did at the June 1 meeting, City Superintendent Mark Brown emphasized the importance of keeping water off South Sherman Avenue, where he said in some places the field to the west is a little bit higher than the road.
He told council members he looked at Sherman Avenue south of Johnson Street with Lou Harmon, and they estimated that 2,000 feet of storm sewer could drain water from the stretch of Sherman Avenue that runs from Johnson Street to Kunkel Street.
Brown expressed his concern that people will speed down that section of road if it’s paved unless something is done to slow traffic.
He suggested adding dips to that section of Sherman Avenue, east to west at the intersections, to slow traffic and let the water run west to the drop inlet of the storm sewer, if it’s installed.
Steve Brown said there’s no doubt the water needs to be drained, but using stop signs where needed is also an option to slow traffic.
Mark Brown said he estimated costs for installation of a 30-inch storm sewer, which wasn’t a firm estimate since engineering hasn’t been done and there might be other issues involved. He said that paving 2,000 feet of road with asphalt or concrete plus the installation of curb and gutter and a storm sewer would likely be pushing $500,000 in costs, excluding labor.
He said this would mean putting $500,000 into improving 2,000 feet of property that’s not even in the city. He said the landowner to the west is willing to sell, so Mark Brown suggested the city consider developing the area and selling off lots to recoup the money.
Steve Brown said he doesn’t think the city should be in the business of competing with private enterprise.
He expressed his concern that the $500,000 cost is so high that it would be easy to turn down. He added that he would like to see the problem solved in a cost-effective manner that makes the road functional.
After hearing comments from visitors about Sherman Avenue and other Holyoke streets, Mayor Orville Tonsing said the council has to step up and that’s all there is to it.
“What I’m going to task you guys with,” he said, “is get out there and look at these streets. See what you think. Let’s see if you can come up with a plan that’s better than the one that Mark has. Personally, I think the storm sewer and the dips — I think we cure two things right there. We drain the excess water we have and slow the traffic down.”
Council hears residents’ concerns
Joe Kinnie said he leaves city council meetings he attends with questions about what the priorities are. He asked Tonsing, council members and Mark Brown to rate the state of Holyoke’s street maintenance on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the best.
Brian Akey said six, John Schneider six or seven, Kevin Scott seven, Mark Brown six or seven, Tonsing seven, Gene Bittner six, Steve Moore seven and Ashley Sullivan six.
Kinnie then asked police Chief Doug Bergstrom his thoughts since he drives the streets so frequently. Bergstrom acknowledged there are problem spots, but said there are more streets that aren’t problems.
“I’ll admit that,” Kinnie said, noting that 80-85% of the streets are in very good condition, but he added that he doesn’t want the streets that are problems to be ignored.
Cherrie Brown passed out completed copies of the form she placed in the June 9 edition of the Enterprise to gather information on repairs Holyoke streets need. She said she was hoping for 10 completed forms, but she received 24 from residents.
The forms referenced not only Sherman Avenue, but many other roads, including Coleman, Belford, Wynona, Baxter and Bowman avenues and Gordon, Furry and Emerson streets. Some forms also referenced alleys in need of repair.
“I hope this is helpful for you,” Cherrie Brown told council members as she distributed the packets, “and thanks for all the things that you do for us.”
Jill Herr expressed her thanks for the cleanup work that was done in gutters, especially downtown, as well as the work done on Sherman Avenue and Johnson Street.
She said she would have given the number four in response to Kinnie’s question, and said the council should look into machinery for grinding streets to be level and the correct height.
“I just think there needs to be constant maintenance on the streets to keep Holyoke the city of pride and progress,” she said.
Barb Kreider said she appreciates the work that was done on Sherman Avenue.
Ron Anderson said he feels it’s past time the streets were looked at and taken care of. He added that he felt that 25% of the work done to fill potholes on Sherman Avenue the day before was already gone.
Paula Strode told council members she was delivering food for Meals on Wheels that morning, and it was hard to get to houses due to the holes on the corners where the pavement meets the gutter.
Linda Statz said she can’t get her motorcycle down the alley by her house because the potholes jerk the handlebars out of her hands.
Rusty Triplette brought another concern before the council, saying some lots and yards in town have weeds and dandelions, and some have grass that’s thigh-high. He said the enforcement on lawn maintenance needs to be better.
Larry York said there is increased traffic on South Belford Avenue and said he has lived there 11 years and the road by his house has still not been paved. Mark Brown said the council will have to make the decision.
Council hears from CAPA director of engineering
Steve Brown complimented the city on all the work that had been done on the streets, noting that good progress was made on Sherman Avenue and Johnson Street.
He told the council that he spoke with Mike Skinner, director of engineering at Colorado Asphalt Pavement Association. He asked Skinner to attend the meeting to introduce himself to the council and speak about the organization.
Skinner said CAPA is a trade association that is the voice of the asphalt paving industry for Colorado. The association has 270 members, and 80 of those members are cities and counties in Colorado. He added that while they do promote the use of asphalt over concrete, they don’t sell contracting or engineering services.
One of his roles is to provide technical support for local agencies. He distributed handouts to council members and told them he had done a rough assessment of Holyoke’s streets.
He said an engineering measurement of how roads perform is on a scale of zero to 100. He said 55 is the important number to remember, as it was established by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about 40 years ago as a dividing line between good roads and bad. Numbers 55 and above indicate good roads, and below indicates roads in need of repair. He said the statewide average is 69.
He pointed out that Holyoke does not have a number either because an inventory hasn’t been done in a long time or one hasn’t been done at all.
Skinner said the dollar per lane mile figure is another important number to consider. It is calculated by dividing the amount of money budgeted for street maintenance by the number of paved lane miles the city or county manages. This allows for apples-to-apples comparisons between cities.
He pointed out that he used the 2021 budget for the city and the county to arrive at $3,500 per lane mile for Holyoke and $2,557 per lane mile for Phillips County. He added that the statewide average is about $5,000 per lane mile.
To arrive at these numbers for the city, he used $100,000 budgeted for street maintenance and $60,000 budgeted for curb and gutter and oil paving.
He said he made an educated guess about how much of the latter would go to streets and set the figure at $25,000. He divided $125,000 by 35.64 paved lane miles to arrive at about $3,500 per lane mile.
For the county, he took $50,000 budgeted for asphalt and chip seal and divided it by 19.55 paved lane miles to arrive at the $2,557 per lane mile figure.
The numbers he used for the paved lane miles were from a 2019 Colorado Department of Transportation roadway statistics report.
One of the things that CAPA provides, he said, is the implementation of a street improvement program that’s accountable to citizens and city staff, and a key component is developing a sustainable funding program.
Skinner said that some cities also have citizen groups that meet with their city councils monthly to discuss street maintenance needs.
Council members had no questions for Skinner, and Tonsing thanked him for attending the meeting.