City Council approves joint crack sealing from $200,000 in road funds

At a special meeting on May 11, the Belleville City Council voted unanimously to spend about $200,000 of the $400,000 available in two road funds to do necessary joint crack sealing on city streets this summer.
Mayor Pro Tem Jack Loria was absent and excused.
The council plans to ask the Downtown Development Authority for help in paying for the project, all of which is in the DDA district.
The streets scheduled for the joint crack sealing are Main Street, Fifth Street, Liberty Street, and all the streets in Victoria Commons.
DPW Director Keith Tackett said if the city doesn’t seal the joint cracks in Victoria Commons soon, “you’ll have another Harbour Pointe.”
Harbour Pointe streets are in serious disrepair, according to the study.
The major streets should have joint cracks sealed every three years, said engineer Ryan Kern of Hennessey Engineers.
The council was warned by Tackett and engineer Ryan Kern that the water seeping into the cracks and then freezing in the winter is breaking up the streets, that otherwise were in good shape.
The city met in special session Monday to discuss the budget and an evaluation report prepared by Hennessey Engineers, putting ratings on all the streets in the city, from 1 (the worst) to 10 (the best).
While the council decides how to pay for upgrading all the streets, the joint crack sealing was a project deemed immediately necessary and affordable by using the fund balances on hand in Local and Major road funds — $200,000 available in each fund.
The cost of bringing all the streets in the city into good shape is unofficially estimated at about $9.6 million and Tackett said he would like to see another $3 million in the total to correct the crumbling infrastructure that they are sure to uncover once they dig below the street surfaces.
City Manager Diane Kollmeyer said they do not have an estimate yet because the council has yet to direct the administration to get an estimate.
Councilman Tom Fielder said they will have to come up with a citywide millage to pay for the project and they will have to explain to the people why everyone has to pay for work on streets they don’t live on.
When asked for an estimate of when the sealing would take place, Kern said if they start the engineering now, they could go out for bids in four to six weeks.
He said the streets will have to be shut down briefly during the process as you can’t drive on the sealing compound for two hours after putting it in place.
Council members agreed the city will have to notify business people and the residents of Victoria Commons when their streets will be closed for sealing.