ASPHALT RESURFACING PLANNED FOR CHAFFEE

CHAFFEE -- Asphalt resurfacing work is planned for four Chaffee streets.

City officials said the work will be done on Main Street from Elliot to the housing bridge; on Frates Street; along a one-block blacktop portion of Hubbard Drive; and on Black Street.

Mayor Ron Moyers announced the street improvement work Monday evening at the regular Chaffee City Council meeting. Council members only moments before had approved a motion to employ ASA Asphalt of Advance for the project. ASA will be paid $28.24 for each ton of asphalt.

"We used ASA on the last street project and they did a superior job," Moyers said.

After the planned street work was read off, Ward 2 Councilman Ed Gauthier told Moyers he had hoped Moyers would say Black Street. The street, he said, is "a big mess." He did not elaborate.

The council chose ASA Asphalt over Apex Paving of Sikeston, which offered a fee of $28.50 per each ton of asphalt. Moyers gave no overall cost for the ASA work, but he said the total cost for Apex would have been more than $40,000.

Ward 4 Councilman Tom Cunningham said the street work would begin this month.

Council members Monday also hired a surveyor for the replacement of a water line along Highway 77 South. The project is not part of the city's $500,000 bond issue to upgrade the city's waste water treatment plant and install a sewer line and lift station along North Frisco Street, said Cunningham. A vote on that bond issue is scheduled for Nov. 5.

He said the city is covering the cost of the estimated $4,000 project that will serve about 13 people.

"It's not that expensive because it's four-inch line," Cunningham tool a reporter after the meeting. "That's something we're just going to bite the bullet on."

The current water line at the site, Cunningham said, is a 2-inch line installed in 1951. The city reportedly has to patch the line, which serves people on the east side of the highway, sometimes one or two times a week. The new water line will run from the former Dame Lumber Company office to the city limits, or about a quarter of a mile, he said.

Reece Brown, the city's administrator, said Chaffee City Attorney David Summers told him that property owners at the site seem to favor the project. Summers did not attend Monday's meeting. Councilmen Randy Dooley, of Ward 3, and Jerry Wolsey, of Ward 1, were also not in attendance.

Also Monday:

A public hearing was set for 7 p.m. on Oct. 23 in relation to the city's bond issue. A representative of McLiney & Co. of Kansas City will attend. The council adopted an ordinance at the meeting to hire the company as its financial adviser for the bond issue.

The council approved a motion to pay $4,130 to the consulting engineer and surveying firm of S.H. Smith for work already completed on the city's waste water treatment plant improvement project. Moyers said the work related to preparation of construction plans. The payment represents 20 percent of S.H. Smith's total fee of $20,650, he said.

Council members approved the purchase of a used gas-powered roller for $500. The roller will be used for flattening asphalt, Moyers said. It will replace a concrete-filled oil drum that was used for the work.

City council members went into a closed session to discuss litigation.