Newton 
eyeing 
street
repairs

Repairs to some of Newton’s most battered and broken streets is on the horizon following discussion at Monday night’s Newton City Council meeting.

Among the roads discussed was First Avenue, though resurfacing of that roadway remains the responsibility of the state. All the city can do is lobby the Department of Transportation to repave the road.

“We do fill the potholes,” Newton Public Works Director Keith Laube said. This year, “we’re going to spend so much money filling potholes, it’s ridiculous.”

City officials and council members have been contacting the Iowa Department of Transportation to encourage resurfacing work of the eastern portion of First Avenue/Highway 6 through Newton. Last year, the state completed a resurfacing project on First Avenue West between Highway 14 and West Fourth Street. The hope is that council members and other community members can convince the state to repair the eastern half.

In the meantime, the city has plenty of streetwork of its own to pursue. Laube presented a plan Monday for some repairs around Newton. His recommendations include:

• Reconstructing West Ninth Street South in 2010 with about $16,000 of state I-Jobs money and $124,000 of money from the city’s $500,000 Whirlpool fund.

• Paving and adding curb and gutter to East Seventh Street South on the south side of South Eighth Avenue. The project would use about $135,000 of I-Jobs money.

• Reclassifying East 17th Street North as a “collector” in order to make it eligible for federal money. Newton has more than $1.1 million in Federal Surface Transportation Program (STP) funds and about $272,000 is added each year. Those funds, however, can only be used to repair streets designated as “arterials” and “collectors,” i.e. roads that serve more than just local traffic. If East 17th Street is reclassified, $212,000 of STP funds could be used along with $53,000 from the city’s Whirlpool fund. The project would take place in 2011.

• Laube also recommended reclassifying South 12th Avenue West a “collector” between Highway 14 and the Gun Club Road so future improvements could use STP funds.

Longterm, the city will look to reconstruct the Beltline Road north of North Fourth Avenue East, add lanes to Iowa Speedway Drive from south of Wal-Mart to the Interstate 80 interchange, Reconstruct Union Drive and replace the bridge on South 11th Avenue West (near the Gun Club Road) with a box culvert.