City council delays contract for alley replacement

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
Citing “a lot of loose ends,” the Hillsboro City Council decided to wait to approve a contract to replace the alley behind the 100 block of North Main until they can get more information to and from businesses affected by the project.



Dale Franz, owner of Dale’s Supermarket, expressed his concern about the impact of the project for unloading groceries into his store on West Grand. Twice a week he unloads a 15,000-pound delivery from the warehouse.



Currently, warehouse trucks park in the alley and the food stuffs are unloaded by forklift into the back of the store. Franz was concerned that if the alley was torn up, as the contract called for, unloading would become more time consuming, inconvenient and costly for his business.



The contract with Hett Construction called for 90 days to complete the project at a cost of $40,500. The purpose of the project was to improve drainage in the alley.



Franz said alternate solutions suggested to him for unloading the trucks, such as using a conveyor or dumping dirt into the alley for temporary relief, were either expensive or unworkable.



“I’m sorry, but unloading seven and a half tons (by hand) isn’t fun,” he said.



Franz said he would not have even known about the project if he had not heard about it informally and inquired about it.



Council members were concerned about the lack of communication from the city office.



“We’ve got other businesses that will be inconvenienced for 90 days,” said Councilman Wendell Dirks. “Have they been notified?”



They had not, according to Mayor Delores Dalke.



Councilman Mike Padgett’s motion passed to put off signing any contract until every business owner had been informed and details of the project could be clarified.



In other business, the council:



— agreed to offer Matt Hiebert half payment of the expenses required to open the sewer line behind the building he owns on North Main. The company which installed the liner seven years ago had not punctured the lining at the time because the building was not fully occupied and the company is no longer responsible to fix the problem. It cost Hiebert $1,395, including his labor, to correct the situation.



— accepted a bid of $31,900 to chip seal 55,000 square yards of city streets this fall. Except for a block of North Birch between Second and Third streets, the chip seal will be done on residential streets east of Ash. The motion included direction to inform residents 24 hours before their street is to be chip sealed so they have time to move vehicles off the street.



— approved a contract for $10,742 with Jantz Construction to repair the hangar at the airport. The project is to begin by Sept. 17 and be completed in 21 working days.



— approved the following appointments to city boards: Elfrieda Funk to the Convention & Visitors Bureau Board, Shawn Edwards to the Board of Zoning Appeals, Phyllis Meisinger and Lillian Bookless to the Hillsboro Housing Authority, Marvin Funk to the Hillsboro Recreation Commission, and Becky Nuss to the Marion County Economic Development Council.



— decided to keep the city’s present health insurance arrangement with Blue Cross/Blue Shield after considering options from several companies researched by consultant Joel Russell of Manning & Smith Insurance. The council had asked for other rates when BC/BS announced a premium increase of 4.5 percent.



— agreed to raise the on-call rate for city electrical and sewer workers from $20 a week to $50 per week. The rate had not been raised in 20 years. An on-call employee who is actually called out during the week is paid time-and-a-half, based on the hourly wage.

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