City has leftover money to use in purching asphalt for paving

The first city council meeting for the month of October brought good news to the council and to the city. Its now known that around $900,000 is available for the city to use to purchase asphalt, despite budget cuts.

Council President Tyron Johnson says, “some areas paving is an immediate need, and again, the taxpayers they deserve to have roads that have not been paved in decades, to get paved.”

Councilman Weston Lindemann says there’s a nine-million-dollar bond from a few years back that was used to purchase paving equipment, which is where this leftover money is coming from. In terms of what streets will need to be paved first, the council must have further discussion about ranking the streets by which ones need it the most.

“In the past we’ve talked about utilizing our own resources as apposed to spending a lot of money on a paving index, which would rank the streets. So, I guess that’s a conversation that will need to continue now that we’ve realized we’re going to have $900,000 to spend on asphalt.” -Lindemann

The only issue is that a reverse auction is currently keeping the city from purchasing asphalt, but the council hopes to resolve this issue soon.

“Reverse auction is currently affecting it, and what we’re trying to do is get the legislature to see how they can do away with that.” -Johnson

The council will have a work session next Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. at city hall.