City hears from Elm Street residents          

[SEPT. 20, 2005]  LINCOLN -- Who ever said you can’t fight city hall should have been in Lincoln’s chambers Monday evening. Last week the council discussed complaints from residents on Elm Street about the oil and chip that is going down on the newly renovated street. Asphalt had been the primary focus for the street which was widened to meet city ordinance and had curbs and gutters added. Before the street settles it will track tar into homes, cars and businesses.

Herman Geriets, Robert Jackson, Paul Donath, all residents of Elm Street and Mary Conrady of CEFCU came before the council to oppose the chip and oil that is being laid. Their arguments were that asphalt is what was expected, it has a better appearance, it doesn’t track into homes and businesses the way chip and oil does and it provides more years of service for the dollar than oil and chip. Alice Geriets said that they had petitioned all the residents on the street and all but two want asphalt. She summed it up saying, “We want it done and we want it done right.”

A review of previous meeting minutes when the project was discussed revealed that the project was stated to be either oil and chip or asphalt and was bid out for either. When the bids came in the Illinois Valley Paving’s bid of $561,541.45 for chip and oil and an additional $86,570 for asphalt was the lowest bid, whether choosing chip and oil or asphalt.

In reviewing the aldermen seemed to miss that it was chip and oil bid that they accepted at the time it was voted on. Finance chair Verl Prather and new streets chair Patrick Madigan said that they had thought it was asphalt they were choosing.

Choosing the lesser bid allowed for all the infrastructure projects slated for this fiscal year to be completed.

Prather said, “If we’re going to spend a half million dollars I’d rather we put the right surface down.”

After some discussion and consultation with city attorney Bill Bates it was decided to allow city engineer Mark Mathon to see if Illinois Valley Paving would halt the final layer of chip and oil and negotiate reworking the road in the spring and laying asphalt and for what price.

[Jan Youngquist]

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