MADISON TOWNSHIP — Trustees held a special meeting Monday afternoon to talk with Richland County engineer Adam Gove about the list of roads they want to repair this year.
Gove recommended two inches of pavement and leveling on nine roads that trustees thought could use 1 or 1.5 inches of pavement.
“My recommendation is to put whatever money you have into getting those leveled,” Gove said. “Based on what I saw when driving those roads, I wouldn’t do less than two inches on nine of those roads because they’re in pretty bad shape.
“If you do an inch or an inch and a half, I think they’ll just fall apart in the first couple of years.”
Trustees released a list of 16 roads they wanted to pave this summer and fall, but are now working to narrow the list down to the roads that are in the worst shape to stay on budget.
So far, trustee Cathy Swank said the township plans to push work off on Little John, Molly Court and Troy Drive to another year.
Gove estimated the costs for two inches of road paving on nine roads would be $440,000 which is more than $100,000 above the township’s allocated budget for the project.
“But we were figuring an inch or an inch and a half,” Trustee Tom Craft said.
The township agreed to pay the City of Mansfield $6,050 to pave their portion of North Street. Craft said the city and township could possibly work out a trade for the same monetary value on other streets that are shared between the township and city.
Township trustees also said they will pave a small portion of Home Road, which is shared with Springfield Township. They also plan to re-do lane striping on Stewart Road.
Gove said he will stay in contact with trustees on the roads that need the most work and put together different bids for them to choose which roads to work on within their budget.
“He’s going to make up the bid sheet for that with the stipulation that when the bids come in, they’re going to be individual for each road and we can pick the ones that fit our budget,” Swank said.
Trustees also agreed to enter a road salt contract with Richland County for 1,000 tons for the 2023-24 winter. The contract is not out for bids yet.
