by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
The Rice City Council meeting on Aug. 1. seemed to be a continuation of an earlier finance meeting with discussion of needed street repair and how those repairs could be paid for.
In regular business, the council approved the proposal by Burski Excavating to grade and compact three-tenths of a mile of road leading to the compost site identified as Sixth Avenue SW at a cost of $700 and the application of a calcium-chloride solution at a cost of $1,425. The grading, compacting and solution application are necessary to control dust caused by traffic on the road.
“I actually talked to a couple of different people (who) live on that road and surprisingly enough three of the residents said, ‘Oh, it’s been a bother. We can’t cook outside,’” said council member Paula Kampa.
Later in the meeting during committee reports, the council turned again to discussion of the streets. Council member Chris Scheel informed the council he had recently made contact with Burski Excavating in reference to street repairs. Scheel had requested Burski submit written bids for the costs of the projects.
Scheel said he had also made contact with Tri City Paving and he had presented approximate cost figures on the road repair to them and said they would be submitting a written bid as well. Scheel said the bid would be of two kinds: piecemeal and total-project bid. The total-project bid would save money since cost of machinery moving and start-up for each phase of the total project would be less.
The piecemeal bid was submitted with a price for each street completed. Quotes were provided for work on six sections of road within the city. Costs for the work could be paid for with funds from the street-fund budget, which is estimated to have some $52,000 in it, with additional funds totaling roughly $22,000 coming in from state and federal programs later this year. Use of the budgeted street-fund dollars will eliminate need to levy for repairs.
Mayor Dale Rogholt said he would contact the school district to see if it would like to have work done in front of the school when that portion of the street is repaired. A portion of the area that is now paved is actually part of school property and provides for parking and a pick-up lane.
Council member Brian Skroch said at some time in the future, the council would need to look at assessments and levies to cover the costs of maintaining roads.
Kampa said there was money available for the repair using funds from the street repair budget. Skroch agreed funds are available now, but some time in the future after using all available funds, the council would have to levy for maintenance.
“We’ve been talking about repairing roads for 10 years,” Skroch said. “And yeah, there is money there that needs to be burned up, but then we are back to zero and then we are back to talking about repairing roads for the next 10 or 15 years.”
What Skroch was referring to was the easiest way to raise money for future street and road repair. His point was that relying on the state to chip in the money in the form of a grant could come to an end and then they would have to assess and levy taxes to fund the repair of the streets.
Come Jan. 1, the council will have a zero balance for roads again after having spent the street maintenance funds for work Scheel outlined. Scheel said there would be more funds coming into the fund in 2017 but admitted the work referred to would take about two-thirds of the total street-fund balance.
Rogholt said he was still paying for assessments levied to pay for Second Avenue NE.
Skroch replied again that he understood the concerns, and no one liked to talk about assessments and levies, but at the same time, the council had to consider future needs and costs.
In other business, the council took the following actions:
● Approved a gambling permit for Volleyball Bash for the Cure to be held Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at O’Brien’s Pub.
● Approved a large-gathering permit application for Rice Women of Today to host a Bike Rodeo Cookout on Aug. 17 in the parking lot between Rice Elementary and Immaculate Conception Church.
● Adopted Finance Committee recommendations for inclusion in the budget letter.
● Approved the budget letter that will be sent to each homeowner. The letter will explain the continued growth of needs in the city and the necessity for raising a levy to meet the needs. Specific departmental needs will be enumerated along with costs to meet the needs.
● Updated annual appointments to reflect Stephanie Fischer as city clerk, and Sheri Johnson as city treasurer.
● Approved application for an OSHA grant for money to be used for safety measures.
● Established at 8:15 a.m. Aug. 12 to canvass the primary election results.
