During Tuesday’s Hope City Board meeting, a list of locations for milling and overlay work was approved unanimously by the board, having been agreed upon by the Street Committee last week. 

In street milling and overlay, the surface of the street is shaved off, then the material is processed with new surfacing material and then re-applied to the surface of the street. The result is a smoother road. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, Hope Street Superintendent Kenneth Harvel said a decision was made to resurface the 200 block of Sixth Street instead of West Avenue B, because recent winter weather damage had emerged on Sixth. 

Hope City Manager J.R. Wilson said included in this year's street resurfacing efforts would be work on intersections on Elm and Sixth, Walnut and Sixth and Pine and Sixth. These are being done, said Wilson, in response to board members pointing out areas of standing water in these places.

Only one contractor has put in a bid to do the job. Wilson mentioned options that could increase the total bids the city might receive in the future. Among them was the commencement of milling and overlay work every two years or every three so the size of the job and the potential profit for the contractor became more attractive.  Contractors must set up and move heavy equipment to do such work, incurring expense and time costs. 

The city board approved the list of repairs and tonnage of milling material to be used at a total cost of $660,000.  The Hope Advertising and Tourist Promotion Commission, which is in charge of the Parks budget, will provide $130,000 of the cost, which accounts for the work to be done on parking lots at the Parks’ locations. 

The list provided at the city board meeting can be seen below.