Major street repair projects in Webster City, proposed by city staff earlier this year, advanced through public hearings at Monday’s meeting of the City Council of Webster City.
The largest project will see a nearly complete rebuilding of Fair Meadow Drive from Des Moines Street west to Rodlyn Road. Construction is scheduled to begin no later than May 2025 and finish sometime in November.
The project scope includes rebuilding of curbs and gutters, hot melt asphalt paving, a concrete sidewalk along the north side of Fair Meadow Drive, new concrete driveway approaches for residences, replacement of water mains, and work on both storm and sanitary sewers. In addition, the project budgets funds for construction of a new sidewalk, along the east side of Des Moines Street north from Fair Meadow Drive to Middle Street.
The city’s consulting engineers on the project, Snyder & Associates, of Ankeny, estimated the project’s cost at $2.342 million, but the lowest responsible bidder, Castor Construction, of Fort Dodge, won the competition with a bid of $1,602,379.16, almost $740,000 under estimate.
Castor was the lead contractor for this year’s Fair Meadow Drive rehabilitation work.
Street Department Supervisor Brandon Bahrenfuss said “getting our bids out early may have helped us secure such a favorable quotation.”
A second major street rebuilding project, the Brewer Street and Willson Avenue improvements project, was awarded to Nels Pederson, of Badger. The project will substantially rebuild Brewer Street and south Willson Avenue, from Brewer Street to Ohio Street. The city has worked with Pederson on similar projects for more than 20 years.
An agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation will bring $966,500 in a federal transportation block grant to Webster City in 2025. It will be used to provide concrete patching, sewer improvements, manhole adjustments, and new ADA — Americans with Disabilities Act — sidewalk ramps along Beach Street. The city will contribute $250,000 toward the program, making it effectively an 80/20 split. Such funding has become rare in recent years, and represents exceptional value to the city and its residents.
The council also approved a contract with Snyder & Associates for professional on-call water main and sewer maintenance projects during fiscal year 2025-2026. The city’s fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends June 30 each year.
Explaining that the city has hired Snyder for similar work over a number of years, Bahrenfuss said, the idea was to “take care of the worst first,” meaning that the most degraded water or sewer mains would be prioritized.
In his council memorandum, Bahrenfuss provided some interesting, little-known statistics. Webster City’s sanitary sewer system is 45.5 miles long and built of both clay and plastic pipe. The majority of sanitary sewer lines run west to east, sloping gently downward to the wastewater treatment plant on East Ohio Street.
Each year a robotic device slowly moves through around 40,000 feet of sanitary sewer, photographing and recording the condition of the sewer lines as it goes. From this work, street department staff prioritize the most critically needed repairs each year.
In 2025, major sewer repairs are planned for Lynndale Drive, Beach Street and at the corner of Superior and Walnut streets.
Similarly, repairs are planned for portions of the city’s 68 miles of water supply mains. The flow of clean water through this network is controlled by 475 valves, which also prevent backflows and isolate mains where a leak has occurred, thus minimizing damage and water loss. A total of 1,330 fire hydrants are available to the fire department when fighting fires across the city.
Seven water main valves and three hydrants will be replaced during the months of April, May and June 2025.
In other action, the council approved $33,022.96 for the purchase of 13 new Taser Model 10 “stun guns” for the police department to replace current units which are old and have been discontinued by the manufacturer. The council memorandum contained this explanation of the role tasers place in policing in Webster City: “Tasers are a vital tool used by law enforcement in many scenarios where, without them, we would not have a viable, less lethal option (than guns) to resolve a confrontation. Tasers have been an important tool to us, on several different occasions over the years, and allow us to safely and quickly apprehend combative subjects, without causing injury to them or officers.”
The new guns “are the most effective tool on the market, with a range of 45 feet creating more time and space, allowing officers to de-escalate and resolve conflicts at a greater distance than all previous models. Also gives an audible and visual warning when turned on, which has power to de-escalate without deploying cartridges,” according to the memorandum.
The guns are manufactured by Axon Inc., of Scottsdale, Arizona. The purchase price includes officer training and all equipment required for training.
Last modified: December 17, 2024