Spirit Lake road repair on hold

SPIRIT LAKE – Spirit Lake drivers should buckle up and brace themselves for puddles, potholes, dips and jolts.

At least for a few more weeks.

Plans to patch and repair streets throughout town – then chip-seal several road surfaces – are on hold because of the belated spring, Mayor Roxy Martin said.

“It’s been very hard,” Martin said. “We’re still not all thawed out yet.”

Once the town’s roads are no longer frozen, Martin said, the city plans to move forward with a transportation plan that was developed in 2007.

Several roads were supposed to be chip-sealed last year. Those improvements were put off for budgetary reasons, Martin said.

“We aren’t quite on track,” Martin said. “Last year we weren’t able to do what we wanted to do.”

The hope is to play catch-up this year, Martin said, completing improvements that were planned for both 2007 and 2008.

First, Martin said, the city must clean up winter’s mess and assess weather-related damage to the roads.

The city’s also awaiting word on possible reimbursement of about $16,000 to $18,000 in disaster funding for over-budget spending for snow removal.

The city transportation plan calls for chip-sealing roads throughout town in phases through 2011, starting on the south end of town.

Rhode Island Street will be chip-sealed from Third to 10th avenues.

Other areas included in the first phase of the city’s chip-seal project include:

• Third Avenue between Rhode Island and New Hampshire streets

• Fourth Avenue from Rhode Island to Vermont streets

• Sixth Avenue just south of Rhode Island to just north of Massachusetts streets

• 10th Avenue from Maine Street to Jefferson

• Adams Street between Ninth and 10th avenues

• Monroe Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues

• Washington, Adams and Jefferson streets from Second Avenue east

• First Avenue

The city plans to chip-seal Salishan Way and surrounding streets in 2009 and a handful of streets in the area mostly northwest of Seventh and Madison in 2011.

Long-term plans include paving 10th Avenue from Highway 54 to Van Buren Street in 2012. By 2018, the city plans to pave areas west of Highway 41, including Blackwell Boulevard, Rhode Island Street, Maine Street and Madison Street, along with portions of Spirit Lake Road and Second Avenue.