Small Town News

County approves new EB streets contract

---

Streets and not roads were among the items hotly debated during Monday's meeting of the Wharton County Commissioners Court as the group approved a new interlocal agreement between Precinct 2 and the city for street maintenance.

Under the terms of the agreement, Precinct 2 Commissioner Chris King said his crews would be providing street construction and maintenance services for seal coating, hot mix and overlay on Wallace, Fitzgerald, College and Leveridge streets right of way adjacent to the East Bernard Fire Department. The city will be charged $4.50 per ton applied to cover the cost of equipment use and maintenance. The contract also calls for the city to compensate the county for the cost of all materials used.

At the commissioners previous meeting, they approved a similar contract with the City of Wharton providing for the resurfacing of N. Alabama Road from the Boling Highway to the four-way intersection at Tiger Avenue where the road becomes Junior College Blvd. The price called for in that contract is $2.70 approximately $2 less than the East Bernard contract. King explained the difference in price by saying Wharton would be providing trucks to haul the paving materials, which must been picked up hot at the supplier's location in the Richmond area, and transported to the work site. He said with the East Bernard contract, the county would be providing the hauling services.

During the discussion of the Wharton contract, King said he preferred the cities purchase the paving materials through the county's contract with the supplier so the county would receive credit for the purchase. He added the price bid for the materials is based on volume and having the cities purchase through the county could result in better bids in the future.

County Attorney Trey Maf-fett questioned the work being done adjacent to the fire department location, saying that he didn't feel it was appropriate. He said since the work was being done on "private" property, the station location is owned by the fire department, it was an inappropriate use of county resources. King disagreed, saying that the area being paved by his crew actually is included in the 60 foot right of way of Leverage Street and not part of the fire department's private drive or parking area. He added the parking area was defined by a concrete pad in front of the building and any drive being repaved was actually part of the right of way covered by the city contract. King said the new contract with East Bernard came out of discussions of the Wharton contract.

"The rest of the court thought that the agreement with East Bernard was too open ended and I can agree with that," he said. "It was felt there needs to be better guidelines so the new contract

is less general and more job specific."

The commissioners also approved two equipment purchases for Precinct 2. The court approved the lone bid for a 2006 Gradeall from Highway Equipment Company of Houston for $169,600. The item was budgeted at $185,000.

During the meeting, King said that he had an opportunity to look at the machine and have his operator test drive it.

"It is in excellent conditions for its age," King said in a phone interview. "One of these pieces of equipment costs $345,000 new. This is a 2006 model but it only has 900 hours on it so it should be in good shape. It's not the age but the mileage. We've got about 14,000 hours on our current machine so I estimate based on the usage we should be able to use the new one for the next 10 years."

The commissioners also approved the purchase of a 2010 Terex Skid Steer Loader through the Houston-Galveston Area Council buy board at $45,900.

"The main purpose of this will be for mamteining the San Bernard Creek once the flood abatement work is done," he said. "Instead of a bucket in the front, it will have a hydraulic shredder right in front of the operator and is very maneuverable. We're going to leave a lot of trees in place so we need something we can get in tight places that a traditional shredder can't. I plan to actually use it across the precinct for drainage maintenance. For those ditches that have gotten to deep for traditional shredders, when it is dry we can drive this one right down in the ditch and get the work done. It's a lot like one of those brush hogs that can cut limbs up to three inches thick.



Copyright 2010 East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2010 East Bernard Express East Bernard, Texas. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

More from East Bernard Express