The Calhoun City board of aldermen were advised Tuesday night to meet with the board of supervisors and see if they can help with overlaying some streets around town.
“The most economical way for you to fix some of these streets is like Bruce just did, enlist the help of the supervisors,” Chodie Myers, an engineer with Willis Engineering, told the board. Myers explained Bruce contracted with their local supervisors to pay for all materials and the supervisors provided the equipment and labor.
Chodie Myers
The Calhoun City board has been wrestling with how to improve their deteriorating streets. The town budgeted $50,000 this year for paving, but that doesn’t get very far with current asphalt prices.
“I’m working on a project now on CR 300 where we’re paving 1,300 feet and it’s costing $47,000,” Myers said.
Myers told the board a “chip and seal” approach would work on a lot of Calhoun City roads, but that may not appease citizens who prefer asphalt.
“Asphalt is just so expense,” Myers said. “In the last 10 years I bet it’s gone up 300%.”
The board discussed a variety of options, but agreed the foundation of so many of their roads are so bad that anything but a tear up and repave is just a “band-aid.”
“The problem in the city is the roads are bad old. They’ve been repaired a lot over the years with water and sewer and there’s no good solution to get them where folks are going to be happy,” Myers said. “It’s just expensive.”
They briefly discussed the possibility of a bond issue to fix the roads, but had mixed opinions.
“You could do that and see if the people would vote for it,” Myers said.
“We’ve got to ante up if we want it to be better,” Alderwoman Barbara Goodson said.
Mayor J.R. Denton argued the new road wouldn’t last as long as it would take to pay off the bond issue and you would be right back in the same position.
“We haven’t been doing what we should have the last four to eight years as far as putting money into paving,” Alderman Larry Bratton said.
The board ultimately agreed to speak to supervisors and see what could be worked out.
The only other business in the meeting involved an executive session to discuss “personnel issues.”
The board met with Public Works Director Perry Goodson in the closed session.
