Berthoud Weekly Surveyor | Covering all the angles in the Garden Spot

Street repairs and maintenance contract awarded by board

August 17, 2018 | Local News

By Dan Karpiel

The Surveyor

The Berthoud Town Board of Trustees held their regularly scheduled meeting at town hall on Tuesday evening. Discussion of street repairs and maintenance constituted the bulk of the evening’s business.

First up was the public comments period where three Berthoud residents brought issues before the board. Berthoud resident Joe Herzanek asked the board to consider the adoption of an ordinance to ban panhandling in town. As Herzanek explained, “I don’t know if that’s a real problem in Berthoud right now, but maybe be proactive about it,” and said after a recent visit to Aspen he discovered that town has an ordinance prohibiting panhandling and would like a similar measure adopted in Berthoud.

Gage Dower, Berthoud High School student, and son of Berthoud Trustee Maureen Dower, addressed the board asking the town to consider placing a uniformed police officer in place of a crossing guard at the busy intersection on Mountain Avenue and Ninth Street. “I don’t think people respected (the crossing guard’s) authority there so my idea was to maybe have a policeman stand there … because if there’s a police officer there people are going to listen to him a lot more,” Dower said in expressing concern about the safety of children and other pedestrians crossing the busy road. He also expressed support for construction of a recreation center in town.

Lastly, Milan Karspeck addressed the board regarding cost-sharing between the town and homeowners regarding the treatment of Emerald Ash Borer. Karspeck explained that when contracting as a private homeowner he was charged $15.20 per diameter inch (or roughly $500 per tree) but in the cost-sharing program with the town’s tree board that price dropped to just $6 per diameter inch (or $173 per tree, on average). Karspeck highlighted the mutual benefit of the cost-sharing plan and suggested other cost-sharing arrangements between the town and residents, and mentioned sidewalk repair specifically, be considered in the future.

The board unanimously approved motion 2018-25 that adopted the Uniform Election Code between the town and Larimer and Weld counties for this fall’s election. The discussion on street repair and maintenance followed and began with a presentation by Stephanie Brothers, director of public works for the town.

Various repairs needed around town, including remove and replace, mill and overlay (partial replacement), patch, chip and crack repair totals up to “around $3.7 million,” according to Brothers. The town accepted bids from three separate companies and there was a discussion regarding whether the lower-priced bids could mean a lower quality of work. Town Administrator Chris Kirk said he is confident that any of the three “should all deliver the same quality project.”

After a nearly 45-minute discussion on the various repairs needed in town and the maintenance schedule for the next five years, Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Hindman motioned for the board to award the 2018 contract in the amount $479,392.50 to Asphalt Specialties and get bids on Colorado Avenue, Iowa Avenue, Mayo Court, Longs Peak Avenue and Elm Street repairs. The motion was seconded by Trustee Pete Tomassi and approved unanimously.

The next scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees is Aug. 28.

 

 

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