Council OKs rebuilding downtown intersection

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
The Hillsboro City Council approved the reconstruction of the intersection of Washington and Grand streets at its Feb. 15 meeting.

The council also approved replacing the one-block section of the alley that runs between North Main and North Washington streets and connects East Grand and East First.

City Engineer Bob Previtera estimated the total cost of the two projects to be $202,000. Funds are available for the projects because they were not spent last year, according to City Administrator Steven Garrett.

A pre-bid conference is scheduled for March 12 with bid-letting set for March 19.

The council also discussed reconstructing the three-block portion of South Washington Street south of D Street that was torn up last year to replace the sewer outfall line. Previtera’s initial estimate to redo the street with valley gutters, concrete curb and guttering and six-inch asphalt on a 6-inch base was $173,000.

Several members of the council and Mayor Delores Dalke said they weren’t sure the city should spend that much on the project when other more highly traveled streets are in need of repair.

“If we’re going to build three blocks of new street, then we need to start prioritizing because that’s a lot of money to spend,” Dalke said. “Is this three blocks where we want to spend that kind of money?”

Al Reiss, of Reiss & Goodness Engineers, said the city could “easily get by” with a prime and double-seal job on those three blocks without concrete curb and guttering.

“Drainage on that street is pretty good,” he said.

Garrett said he would get together with Previtera to outline the city’s options.

In other business, the council:

approved a low bid of $97,200 from Walters Morgan of Manhattan to replace the three under-drain filters at the city’s water treatment plant. The company specializes in these kinds of projects, the council was told. Four bids had been submitted; the highest was $108,174.

The target date for the project is late April or early May.

The city will finance the project with temporary notes, which will then be rolled into a much larger loan from Rural Development that will fund major improvements at the plant later this year.

approved the reappointment of Paul Jantzen, Lou Greenhaw and Gary Fields to the Tree Board and the reappointment of Gaylord Goertzen, Lowell Goering and Lynn Penner to the Planning and Development Commission.

decided that because of scheduling conflicts, their next meeting will be held at 5 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 21.

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