High quality streets benefit city in Nevada

By Ralph Pokorny

Herald-Tribune

Nevada, Mo. -- It was very fitting that the city's annual street construction was under way and visible during the funeral procession for Dr. Ben Mendenhall, Nevada City Manager JD Kehrman said Thursday afternoon.

Dr. Ben, as he was known, was the chairman of the city's streets and infrastructure committee from its inception in 1994 until he retired from it in 2010.

Including 2012, when the city budgeted about $620,000, the city has spent about $7 million on street construction, with the money coming from the city's 1/2-cent transportation sales tax, which must be renewed by voters every five years -- a feature of the tax that Dr. Ben and members of the streets committee said in past committee meetings was an important part of the program meant to ensure the committee and the city are held accountable to the voters for the work that was completed.

"I think the community shares Dr. Ben's vision that quality of life and economic development are enhanced by a properly applied street tax," Kehrman said.

Dr. Ben and the committee made a point of scattering each year's projects around the town, in both the affluent and less affluent parts of town. Their attitude has been that rebuilding a crumbling street in the less affluent areas would improve the quality of life there so that the people living there would gain pride in the neighborhood and then make other improvements on their own.

"Nice streets add value to homes," Kehrman said, adding that it also means easier access for emergency vehicles.

The tax was originally conceived because of the difficulty the local economic development organizations had in mapping out routes when they wanted to give a prospective business representative a tour of the town, Mary Ireland, who at that time was a member of the Nevada Area Economic Development Commission, said.

Prior to the enactment of the transportation sales tax, many of the streets were in poor conditions because the city did not have the money to replace them.

One of this year's projects was to rebuild North Cedar Street from Hickory to Atlantic. This project, which was decided on last fall, was one that Dr. Ben and the street committee had looked at for several years, but had not been able to fit into the schedule until this year.

"I'm pleased we were able to get Cedar Street done," Kehrman said.

"This was one Dr. Ben championed for years," he said.

"We felt it was a 'hats off' to the infrastructure and streets committee and the city council. There were a lot of unknowns," he said.

As it turns out, "Cedar went smoothly -- Ashland has been the problem. It's been slow and tedious -- a lot of work," Kehrman said.

The school buses and the trash trucks traveling the stretch of Ashland from Ash to Spring streets did a lot of damage to the street. Plus, there was an area that had a water seep in wet weather that created soft spots in the road. The city had to have a special mat installed in an effort to keep the street intact longer.

Kehrman said they are also using special asphalt mix on Ashland that is more expensive and will stand up to the heavy usage and the water problems better than what is used on the other streets.

APAC-Missouri, the company doing the paving this year, planned to pave Ashland this morning.

Other streets rebuilt this year include: the 800-1100 blocks of North Oak and the 200 block of East Minnesota.

"I think we'll see a good product when we're done," he said.

After APAC is finished with the street paving, city crews will pour the driveway approaches and ADA-compliant curb cuts.

Kehrman said that Tom Hutchison, the city's construction specialist, found that city crews could do a lot of the work at a lower cost than hiring a contractor.

According to a story in the March 23, 2011, edition of the Nevada Daily Mail, Hutchison told the city council "that the city is currently paying the contractors who do the street construction, $7 per square foot, or about $630 to pour a 6-by-15-foot driveway."

City employees do all the preparation for the company to pour the concrete, which costs about $136 for the material."

'We're paying them an additional $500. Why can't we do it' We're already there,' Hutchison said."

Kehrman said that when the city crews finish their part they will back-fill the curbs with some of the best black dirt he has seen.

"I think they've done a good job," Kehrman said.

When all of the work is finished, he said, the city will do an analysis of the street projects and look at any problems they encountered this year and take that information back to the streets and infrastructure committee.

This fall, the city staff and the infrastructure committee will start discussing the projects for 2013.

"If someone has a street they want considered they can call the city hall at (417) 448-2700, or come to the infrastructure committee meeting or contact a committee member," he said.

When an infrastructure committee meeting is se,t the time and date as well as the agenda will be listed on the city's Web site: www.nevadamo.org.

Kehrman said that this fall the city will be doing an aggressive street crack sealing program. "I'm glad the infrastructure committee allowed some money for crack sealing. It goes a long way in preventive maintenance," he said.