By NICK BUDD
Hays Post
On Thursday, the Hays City Commission awarded bids for the 2014 street maintenance program. The proved include a $219,784 bid to Hi-Plains Sand for chip seal, a $124,872.16 bid to Stripe and Seal for the reconstruction of 11th Street, a $42,400 bid to Sweeney Pavement Maintenance for polypatch, and a $71,509 bid to Stripe and Seal for curb and brick repair.
By awarding the bid, the city will also allocate $75,000 for in-house work and $20,000 for the sidewalk rebate program. It will also leave approximately $44,785 for any unforeseen work or cost overruns.
Public works director I.D. Creech reported the 11th Street repairs will happen in two phases, which will benefit the business owners on the street.
“We talked to the business owners that will be effected by this project and the construction will occur in two phases; an east half and a west half.” John Braun, assistant director of Public Works said. “That was built into the bid documents, that the contractor would be required to do it so that businesses could be accessed.”
Commissioner Henry Schwaller expressed concerned there were still other streets that needed repairs in the Hays area.
“We typically spend a lot more on street repairs. This is quite small, yet our needs are pretty large.” Schwaller said. “There are streets that need a certain level of care, and if we don’t get to them, they’ll just continue to deteriorate.”
City Manager Toby Dougherty said the city usually spends extra funds from the general fund for street repairs, but the plan is to save that money for future projects such as the 13th Street repairs, the possibility of subsidies for the KDOT essential air service program, and for the final design of the airport terminal.
“We would love to have the extra money,” Dougherty said. “I would just caution that we get some of the other things wrapped up and then, assuming we don’t have to spend extra money on those other projects, we will be the first ones coming back asking for additional allocations.”
The money for the street repairs will come out of the gas tax the city collects.