Estimate to concrete Holton's industrial park near $1 million

Plans for reconstruction of roads at Holton’s industrial park moved forward on Monday with some discussion from the Holton City Commission on whether to connect one of the park’s roads to nearby Holton Community Hospital.

Commissioners also noted that the Kansas Department of Transportation is taking another look into adding a turn lane on U.S. Highway 75 at one of the industrial park’s highway entrances, just north of where KDOT granted HCH a similar turn lane several years ago.

Holton Street Superintendent Rex Cameron met with commissioners on Monday to discuss a draft estimate for construction of all new concrete roads in the industrial park, where existing roads had deteriorated in recent years due to heavy truck traffic. The estimate, from King Engineering of Holton, put the cost of rebuilding the roads at $994,991, commissioners noted.

Cameron said he was “happy” with the design of the proposed new industrial park roads, which are proposed to be built with six inches of compacted subgrade material, six inches of rock and eight inches of concrete on top of it to withstand heavy truck traffic. He also noted there are “a few things that I would like to see changed” with the draft plan, although those concerns were “minor.”

The draft plan features concrete work on the entrances into the industrial park from U.S. 75, and Holton City Manager Bret Bauer said there had also been some talk about an entrance into the park from the HCH parking lot nearby. However, Bauer also noted that the city didn’t “want a city street going into private property,”

Cameron agreed, saying he was not sure whether that would be part of the work because the road would go onto private property, but later added that if a road were built from the park to the hospital lot, it would have to be done separately from the industrial park road project. He also asked if commissioners would be interested in cutting out a section of concrete curb and gutter if such a road were to be built.

The main thing, commissioners noted, is getting the road built, as there are four lots in the industrial park still standing vacant at the present time. Commissioner Erich Campbell said filling the lots with tenants would help the city to get its investment on the roads back quicker, and with new roads, now would be the time to step up efforts to sell the lots.

On the other hand, Commissioner Dan Brenner said, the city should also get the roads rebuilt in order to properly serve existing industrial park tenants.

Bauer and Cameron also told commissioners that KDOT was “in the process of looking at” a turn lane from U.S. 75 into the industrial park. Cameron added that when the city asked for a turn lane into the park at the same time HCH was looking into getting a turn lane onto Columbine Drive, the city asked for a turn lane into the park but was told “there was not enough traffic to justify it.”

Now, with at least one business in the park with tractor-trailers coming in and out on a regular basis, the city has asked KDOT to review that request for a turn lane, Cameron said. Bauer also noted that business owners in the industrial park mentioned the possibility of a turn lane more than anything else when asked about their concerns about the road reconstruction project.

The only commissioner expressing any reservations about the project was Tim Morris, who said the city needed to “proceed with caution” on this project, since it is coming from industrial park and capital improvement funds. Bauer reminded him that other city projects in recent years, such as painting the city’s water tower and purchasing catalyst converters for generators at the city’s power plant, had also been paid for with capital improvement funds.

In other business on Monday, commissioners:

* Approved minutes from their April 20 meeting and a list of financial appropriations made since that meeting.

* Approved a request for a neighborhood barbecue from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 6 in the 400 block of Ohio Avenue. The street will be closed for that period of time.

* Heard a request from Brenner for an update on lake levels at Banner Creek Reservoir for the commission’s May 18 meeting in the wake of precipitation received in the Holton area on Monday. It was reported that the city received about 2.7 inches of rain at Banner Creek Science Center and Observatory on Monday.

* Heard a comment from Assistant City Manager Kerwin McKee that the City-Wide Spring Clean-Up Day on Saturday was “a record-setter.” Bauer said he would have a full report on the clean-up day ready for the May 18 meeting.

* Met in executive session for 10 minutes to discuss non-elected personnel matters. No action resulted from the session.

* Adjourned the meeting at 7:55 p.m.

The Holton City Commission regularly meets at 7 p.m. on the first and third Monday of each month at Holton City Hall, 430 Pennsylvania Ave. For more information or to be placed on the agenda of an upcoming meeting, call City Hall at 364-2721.