Jasper County covers road maintenance in Reasnor

Jasper County is footing the bill of a small road project on Main Street in Reasnor, and as a result the county engineer is recommending an agreement be drafted in order to cover the future construction and maintenance of the other farm-to-market routes in the small town.

Supervisor Brandon Talsma said on March 19 he was contacted by city officials in Reasnor late last fall about resurfacing the stretch of road on Main Street from Broad Street to Robin Avenue, which is near the county garage. Reasnor officials asked if the county would be able to contribute because of its heavy traffic.

Reasnor Mayor Tami Weishaar brought Talsma a finalized plan and notified him that the road may also be considered a farm-to-market route, which he said could change things a little bit. Jasper County Engineer Michael Frietsch made contact with the mayor shortly after to sort out the details and scope of the project.

The county engineer said rather than a full reconstruction of the road it is more so considered maintenance, especially given how short the stretch is. The city, he said, is adding material to the existing stretch of Main Street, which is indeed a farm-to-market extension route because of the city’s low population density.

“They’re going to put three inches of material — one-inch road stone — on this road and then incorporate into the existing road that’s there with cement and water,” Frietsch said. “So they’re going to cement stabilize or cement treat this base is essentially what they’re going to do. They’re going to stabilize it.”

To seal off the road and protect the cement treatment, contractors are going to put a layer of seal coat.

“It is a maintenance project,” Frietsch said. “If they were going through and doing soil-cement stabilization and then they were putting asphalt back down on it, then it would be a different story. But since they are doing a seal coat here I’m considering this to be a maintenance project in my opinion.”

Frietsch obtained the quote the City of Reasnor received from Manatt’s, Inc. for $86,873.60, which he described as a reasonable number.

“When we were looking at 112th Avenue down there in Monroe and looking at that stretch — a three-quarter-mile — we were looking at probably $150,000. And that would be the same thing,” Frietsch said. “…And that was about a couple of years ago. So this is probably not unreasonable.”

The stretch of road to be restabilized in Reasnor is about 0.25 miles.

Frietsch said the project would be a good investment for Reasnor and for the county, particularly because it goes by the secondary roads motor grader shed.

“There is good justification there for us to do it,” he said.

However, Frietsch also said he identified about four roads in Reasnor that would classify as farm-to-market routes for Jasper County. He recommended it might be a good idea to form a 28E Agreement with Reasnor acknowledging the county would be in charge of future construction or maintenance of those roads.

“If they have some things that they want to do maintenance on their own, then we can negotiate that into the 28E Agreement and we can do like we’ve done with Mingo and with Lynnville and say we’ll give you ‘X’ amount of dollars or a certain percentage, whichever is greater,” Frietsch said.