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 Area residents used snowblowers, snow plows and snow shovels to dig out from a winter storm that hit late Friday and Saturday. Another storm is to hit tonight. Staff photo/William Laney MIKE BURKHOLDER
and WILLIAM LANEY
Staff Writers
A winter snow storm, which dumped as much as 3 feet in the Washington, D.C. area, hit the area with as much as 9 inches of snow in Wapakoneta and some areas of Auglaize County.
The snowfall came with high winds which created drifts as tall as 4 feet causing hazards for the city and county roadways.
Wapakoneta weather observer Dan Dietz calculated 8.5 inches of snow fell in Wapakoneta Friday and Saturday. The National Weather Service is predicting as much as 10 more inches starting with a light snow at midnight with most of the snow falling throughout the day Tuesday before tapering off early Wednesday morning.
Wapakoneta Public Works Superintendent Meril Simpson said city crews hit the roads at 4 a.m. Saturday, but the high winds hampered their effforts.
Crews worked until 4:15 p.m.. Saturday and returned Sunday and worked from 7 a.m. to 1p.m. before heading back out early this morning.
“We are attempting to clear the roadways the best we can and we are dumping more salt and grit this time,” Simpson said this morning. “The temperature is still too cold for the salt to work, but if we get enough sun it may warm it up enough to help.”
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Friday, 12 June 2009 |
By KAREN CAMPBELL
Assistant Managing Editor
Nearly 34 miles of roads are to be paved by the county and townships during 2009.
Prices for the work are expected to continue to increase, possibly by $3.50 a ton in place for what could be a total of $60 a ton.
Helping pay for some of the costs of the 20.4 miles to be paved in the county is a $360,000 state Issue I grant. Without that, the county could only afford to resurface approximately 13 miles.
“Most of the roads we are resurfacing were last done in 1996-97, 12 or 13 years ago,” Auglaize County Engineer Doug Reinhart said.
He said additional miles need resurfaced, but they will have to make do with what they can afford.
“The repaving program is estimated at $1.1 million,” Reinhart said. “We don’t have the funds to do more.”
At a total cost of $50,000 a mile for a 20-foot road and 1 1/4 inch asphalt, Reinhart said asphalt prices have not receded like crude oil prices, from which they are derived. He doesn’t know why.
The longest stretch scheduled to be paved is 4.7 miles on Buckland Holden Road. Also scheduled to be repaved in the county are portions of Southland Road, Aqueduct Road, Center Street, Walnut Street, Spring Street, Middle Pike, National Road, Bensman Road, Moulton-Fort Amanda Road, County Road 25A, Infirmary Road, Baker-Wright Road, and 13 streets in Villa Nova subdivision.
Portions of township roads scheduled to be repaved include Gutman Road and Walnut Street in Clay Township; East Shelby Road in German and Jackson Township; County Road 61 and Sommers Road in Jackson Township; Monroe Road in Logan Township; Ramga Road in Moulton Township; Sandkuhl and Seibert roads in Noble Township; Weimert School Road, Fryburg
Drive, Winemiller Road and Townline Lima Road in Pusheta Township; Dowty Road in St. Marys Township; and River Road in Union Township.
Total cost for the township repaving is estimated at $698,000.
Reinhart said many of the townships are getting ready for additional state funding next year, when they are anticipated to have a bigger repaving program.
Bids for the county’s repaving this year are scheduled to be opened June 25. Six companies have received information, but Reinhart said bidding is typically not very competitive as there is one asphalt plant and one supplier in the center of the county.
For another company to come in, costs would most likely go up because of travel distance.
In the last six years, only Shelly Company, which operates near Buckland, has submitted a bid for repaving materials.
The repaving most likely will be done in July and August.
Since 1990, the county’s repaving program has paved between 16.6 miles in 2008 at $56.50 a ton and 45.8 miles in 1994 at $19.27 a ton.
Since 2003, there has been at least a 106 percent price increase per ton.
“At the rate we’re going, we’re going to be repaving roads every 26 years,” Reinhart said. “You don’t have to be an engineer to realize what roadways would look like by then. Grants are sorely needed. I don’t see any increase in funding.”
The county engineer said the sealing program is helping to compensate by doing 84 county miles and 20 township miles this year at a cost of $2,650 per mile, for a total of approximately $222,600 for the county’s portion.
“We had no seal program in the 1990s because we were resurfacing every 10 years and repaving more than 40 miles a year,” Reinhart said. “We’re making do with the dollars we are given — that means a lot of patchwork.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 15 June 2009 )
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