Street repairs to be expensive
Street repairs to be expensive
By STU MERRY
The City of Garrison has budgeted $103,000 for street repairs this summer.
It may sound like a lot, but with the amount of damage already seen around town, that amount is just a drop in the bucket. It will cost a lot more to put a dent in the repair work expected this summer. ground is so saturated many streets are like driving on sponges, and more bad areas showing up almost daily.
Alderman Gene Hummel, who along with Susan Steinwand comprise the city’s Streets Committee, said $77,000 was spent on street repairs last year. That amount equals 47,000 square feet.
“That 47,000 square feet sounds like a lot – streets are about 66 feet wide – that doesn’t leave much for linear feet – about 1,082 – and that’s not very much,” he said.
Last year’s cost was $1.32 per square foot. What with the ballooning price of oil, Hummel expects that figure to be much larger this year.
Hummel is fearful not all areas will be repaired.
“It’s one of those things … we have to budget what we can and repair what we can each year,” he said. “Years like this, that $103,000 is a lot of money, but it won’t get us that far. We’ll fix what we can and then look to next year … hopefully, some year we’ll get caught up, or ahead of the game.”
It has yet to be determined what needs to be repaired this year. Areas where “boiling” has taken place will receive first priority. Hummel said this year’s street damage is worse than normal due to the high water table.
Hummel just shakes his head when he thinks about the number of bad areas that will need repair.
“So many spots need some attention,” he said.
