Work to be limited to $600,000

By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer

ASHWAUBENON – Despite the lowest bidder coming in more than $100,000 over budget for a contract to handle milling and resurfacing work this year for several sections of the village’s streets, the Ashwaubenon village board agreed Tuesday, June 26, to award a contract, but limit repaving work to $600,000 as budgeted for 2018.

The contract included a paving list with portions of Bradbury Lane, Bradbury Court, Ashley Court, Autumn Leaves Court, Trissino Way, Shady Lane, View Lane, North Road, True Lane, Parkview Road and Commodity Lane along with patch work for portions of Parkview Road, Market Street, Avondale Drive and Limerick Court.

Village Director of Public Works Doug Martin said the annual contract will typically involve taking off the top two inches of asphalt on a number of streets in the village and then repaving them with the goal of including five miles of roadway each year.

“That is what we put out for bid,” Martin said. “In terms of funding, we generally have a little less than that.

Martin noted the two bids the village received came from Northeast Asphalt and Murphy Concrete and Construction (MCC) with the lowest bid being $727,629 from MCC.

“We’re asking for approval of MCC with the understanding that we’ll be meeting with them to pare down the work to meet our budget constraints,” he said.

Upon approval of the contract, Martin said letters will be sent out to all the people living on the streets where the repaving work will be done.

After some spot curb and gutter repair and utility repair takes place right after the Fourth of July, Martin said milling work should begin around the middle of July and then the resurfacing after that.

No special assessments for road maintenance

When asked by Trustee Mark Williams why the village doesn’t charge special assessments to people who own property where the roads are being resurfaced, as has been the case in the city of Green Bay, Martin said Ashwaubenon takes care of the maintenance of its roadways through the general tax roll.

“We do not assess the maintenance work,” Martin said. “We do not assess repaving through the property owners. That’s handled through our general fund through the taxes.”

When a road or a utility is first put in, such as for a new subdivision, Martin said that can be assessed, though the “general practice since I’ve been here is a developer comes in looking to develop an area, they cover the cost of doing that work, so there is no assessment and then they reap the benefits of selling those lots when it’s done.”

“When a utility’s first gone in – I don’t want anybody to think they won’t ever get an assessment in Ashwaubenon – but if you have a vacant lot with no services to it and you request the service to be run to it, you’ll have a payment to make at that time,” he said. “But in terms of maintenance, that’s covered under your rates or under the taxes.”

Martin also noted a rating system, known as Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating or PASER, is used in Ashwaubenon to prioritize which roads are the worst and put together the village’s paving plans.