HUMBOLDT — Humboldt may purchase an Asphalt Zipper to aid in street improvement.
The device gnaws up hard-surfaced street material so that it may be reclaimed and packed back in place.
The lion’s share of Humboldt streets are maintained with periodic chip-and-seal treatment. Preparation of streets to smooth surfaces often takes days, sometimes weeks, City Administrator Larry Tucker said.
One of the Zippers can accomplish the same results in a matter of hours and reduce cost of improvements through reclamation of previous applied material, he said, allowing that labor savings likely would pay for a machine in a couple of years.
Cost is about $93,000. The device is a large steel cylinder outfitted with dozens of carbide-tipped teeth that chew up asphalt or concrete, said Bryan Knight, an independent contract representative of the Utah company that makes Zippers.
The Zipper discussion was informational at Monday night’s council meeting. A decision on purchase will be made later.
COUNCIL MEMBERS amended the city’s 2011 budget to account for paying off lease-purchase obligations of $77,822, buying a police car for $16,500 and correcting the sanitation fund balance by $7,012. Expenditures were funded by transfers from gas and sanitation funds.
They also approved an ordinance raising sewer rates by $3 a month, which put minimums at $24.45 for residents, $28.45 for rural residents and city commercial accounts and $34.66 for rural commercial users.
Council members learned that recent appointments to the volunteer fire department were Nathan Ellison, Michael Barfoot, David Ellsworth and Randy Modlin. With retirement of longtime firefighter Dan Julich, Roger Vincent was named first assistant chief and Ronnie VanLeeuwen second assistant.
JoAnn Roether, 818 S. Eighth St., was appointed to the Council to represent the first Ward. She replaces Wayne Carson, who resigned his council seat earlier this year. Roether recently moved to Humboldt to work for Westar Energy.
Jarred, Gilmore and Phillips, Chanute, will audit city financial records for this year, $4,600, and at the conclusion of 2012, $4,700. The Chanute firm’s bid was one of two.
TUCKER SAID a new storm siren erected in Cannon Park in the north part of town was not completely up to snuff. A test Monday had it wail storm and all-clear signals but not one to alert volunteer firefighters they were needed.
“It will be tested again next Monday,” Tucker said.
About 7 acres west of the new senior housing complex was deeded to the city by Excel Development Corporation, which owns the housing units, Tucker said. How the land will be utilized will be decided later.
Kansas Department of Transportation has been contacted about placing signs on U.S. 169 to alert travelers of recreational vehicle facilities in Camp Hunter Park, at the southwest edge of town.
Roether proposed making the information available on the Internet.
“I was looking for (RV) spaces here before I moved to Humboldt, and nothing came up on Google,” she said. Whatever is on the Internet needs to be more accessible than just Humboldt’s website, Roether added: “People don’t look at individual town websites when they’re looking for an RV park.”
Council members approved start of abatement proceedings to clean up and repair houses at 323 Sycamore and 1109 Pecan, judged to be nuisances by city personnel. Action was delayed on a house at 609 New York, until the estate of which it is a part is settled, and on a business property at 802 Bridge St., so that it may be checked more thoroughly.
