15th St. resident has issues with road condition

     Gary Novak, a resident on 15^th Street in Greenfield Township, addressed the board of supervisors and County Engineer Derek Snead during the May 1 board meeting. Novak is concerned with the condition on his road in southern Jones County.

     “I keep coming in here, hoping for something,” said Novak, asking for increased maintenance on the road. “Is something in the works to make it better for the people who pay taxes?”

     Novak said the potholes on 15^th Street are pretty bad, as is the dust. Snead said dust control is synonymous with potholes.

     “It leads to potholes,” he said.

     Novak also compared Linn County’s portion of the road with Jones County’s. Snead said the terrain of Jones County’s portion is hard to work with.

     “Half the road washes away two or three times a year,” added Novak. He said the 1-inch rock the county contracts out just washes away.

     “Fifteen percent of the road rock material is very fine and binds together,” explained Snead.

     Novak said there is not enough fine matter in the road rock material to pack together and fill the many holes.

     “The dust just seems to cover our community,” he said of the subdivision.

     Snead said 15^th Street is in need of a lot of work, aside from dust control issues: re-grading and wider ditches, just to name a few. He said all of those projects require the purchase of right of way. To help with the washouts, he said a crown needs to be re-established down the center.

     “We can’t do much for dust control,” Snead concluded. “We don’t have the finances to put dust control down on all of the gravel roads.”

     Novak said he felt like he was in a losing battle. “I’m barking up a tree that’s going to be dead,” he said. “You have the money for trails but not for the country folks.”

     He did praise the county for grading 15^th Street last week, though.

     Supervisor Wayne Manternach, who resides in rural Jones County, said he lives on a gravel road and never sees the county put dust control down on his roadway.

In other county business:

     • The board approved several items of business related to the JETS facility in Monticello. Superior Concrete Construction was awarded the parking lot, driveway, and street extension bid for $68,445 for reinforced concrete.

     The board received three bids that ranged from $79,000 to $68,000.

     County Auditor Janine Sulzner said there is not enough money in the grant the county received for the overall project to cover this item, without roughly $25,000 remaining. This investment also includes the county’s match.

     The board approved bids from Monticello Carpet & Interiors for $2,738.40 for carpet and vinyl and from Spahn & Rose Lumber Company for $998 for cabinets.

     A change order in the amount of $2,600 was approved related to the doors for the JETS facility.

     • The board approved a contract with Cedar Valley Corporation for the PCC overlay project on County Road E-45. The contract is in the amount of $2.8 million.

     • Snead informed the board that he’s seeking comments from land/home owners on 200^th Avenue related to a possible road vacation.

     “It’s a low-volume road and I wanted to put some feelers out,” he said.

     Supervisor Jon Zirkelbach said owners on that road opposed the vacation.

     “People who use it don’t want it closed,” he said.

     Snead said as middle ground, he would also be open to making it a level B road. “It’s about what the best use of our maintenance funding is,” he said.