Alva Review-Courier -

City Business Manager Joe Don Dunham told the city council Tuesday about a recent meeting of the street committee. The discussion was on street work completed and plans for this year.

One project will be completion of the intersection at East Flynn and Meno which washed out in last year’s heavy rains. After the replacement of culverts, the street surface was graveled until warmer weather would allow for a more permanent fix.

“I know this has been a headache for people,” said Dunham. He said it just doesn’t make sense to do more to it right now because it would just cave in again. “We’ve got a little bit of time (to put in) on that one.”

At 9th and Santa Fe where trucks go to Wheeler Brothers, the corner needs to be replaced. “I’m kind of holding off on that corner right now,” Dunham said, “one for the weather and two for the cost. That corner will probably be a $20,000 fix to do it right.”

Other areas to be tackled include blacktopping the west side of the square, College Ave. east of BancCentral, 4th Street in front of City Hall, Locust St. from 6th to 11th, Santa Fe from 6th to 11th, Cherry St., and Hunt St. from Maple to Locust.

Dunham said there were some other streets that need to be milled with chip-seal added. Skyline has a couple of areas that are “real soft” and have some potholes right now. He said milling those areas down and then doing a chip-seal along the entire street would “improve the area tremendously.”

The committee also discussed bringing in a grinder to grind up the concrete presently stored at the transfer station. Dunham said it could be ground up into a usable product to be used in alleys or even as the base on streets. It would probably be a $20,000 to $30,000 project, but Dunham said it would eventually save the city money as they won’t have to travel to get rock.

The street department hopes to post an updated map on the city’s website soon. It will show all the streets that have been chip-sealed, blacktopped or concreted in recent years.

Sanitation

Ronnie Hoskins, new head of the City of Alva sanitation department, met with the council’s sanitation committee recently. Committee member Brian Wallis told fellow council members that Hoskins is looking at ways to make the department cost efficient.

City roll-off containers were discussed. The rates are being reviewed to see if they need to be adjusted.

Wallis said the city needs some replacement two-cubic-yard containers as several are rusting out. Bo Hannaford asked if this need had been included in the city’s budget, and Dunham said there was about $10,000 allocated. However, that won’t buy a full semi load, perhaps half a load. The cost is around $700 each.

Dunham said Hoskins has been working on two of the old roll-offs, getting new bottoms welded into place and rehabilitating them. With paint and new decals, he said the repaired dumpsters will be “like new.”