By Chad Koenen

Publisher

With an eye to the future needs of the community, the New York Mills City Council discussed a pair of expansive road and capital improvement plans to guide future projects in the community.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Tuesday night, the city council heard from Michael Weber, of Apex Engineering, concerning a capital improvement plan and pavement evaluation report. Both expansive studies will attempt to guide the city council about future repairs that will be needed in the community moving forward.

As part of the pavement evaluation report, Apex Engineering completed an inventory and assessment of the street conditions for all 8.9 miles of city-maintained roads. Each road was given a score from 0-10 based on its overall general condition. A total of 1.1 miles was deemed as failing to very poor, with 2 miles of road being deemed as very good to excellent. Weber said the vast majority of road, or 3.2 miles, was deemed as fair to good. 

He went on to say there are no roads that are ranked below a score of two, which shows the roads are in good shape overall.

“In general your streets are in very good condition, overall I would say,” he said. “Nothing is lower in town than a two and to the point where you can’t use it.”

Weber said the study is aimed at guiding future maintenance to potentially expand the life cycle of the roads in the community. 

“Primarily it is a tool for Kyle (Mattson) to look at and say I have a seal coating plan for five years rotation and these are the roads I am going to focus on,” said Weber. “I can’t stress how important it is to continue with that plan process moving forward and that is kind of the plan of the report is to help Kyle continue with that process.”

The study determined that the worst roads were South Walker Ave. from Winslow St. to Willow Creek Lane, Edgewood St. from S. Tousley Ave. to east of S. Broadway, while the best road was North Boardman Ave.

In addition to the street assessment, Weber presented the city council with a Capital Improvement Plan for future projects in the community. The plan featured five projects estimated to cost over $12.4 million that will be needed in the near future. 

Weber said the projected cost for the projects are very preliminary, but some of the projects identified in the capital improvement plan include:

• New water treatment facility for $7 million with a target construction being in 2026-27

• Street rehabilitation for Township Parkway, S. Boardman Ave., N. Walker Ave., S. Walker Ave. for $645,000 with a target construction being in 2027

• Sanitary sewer improvements for the alley from Hayes to Walker, Main Ave. to Highway 84, Highway 84 crossing and along Highway 84 and the Karvonen lift station replacement for $1.1 million with a target construction year to be determined.

• Street and utility improvements for E. Nowell St., S. Tousley Ave., Edgewood St., W. Lawrence St. and S. Broadway Ave. for $2.2 million with a target construction year to be determined.

• Water and sanitary sewer improvements for Highway 84 to Cornwell Ave. and lift station replacement for a cost of nearly $1.4 million with a target construction year to be determined.

Weber said the entire capital improvement plan is just a guide for future projects and it is ultimately up to the city council to determine what, if any, of the projects it will complete moving forward.