COMO—The Como city council at their regular monthly meeting Tuesday recognized Hopkins County, specifically Commissioner Greg Anglin of Pct. 2, for help in taking care of the labor in repairs to McBride Street over the last month.
The October budget for the city of Como included a $20,976.50 expenditure for repairs to McBride Street, making up about half of the month’s expenses, which totaled $39,229.60.
“It’s [McBride Street] much better than it’s been,” Como Mayor Jerry Radney said. “You don’t have to drive in the ditch anymore to go down the road.”
Councilman Austin Baxley noted Hopkins County Precinct 2 did the repair work, and the city of Como paid for the materials.
“Greg Anglin is the one who made that happen,” Baxley said.
Later in the meeting, Anglin arrived and answered questions regarding road repairs on the county roads in Pct. 2, suggesting one of the materials they’ve recently utilized could benefit the city of Como.
“We’re dabbling on gravel roads [with] shingles,” Anglin said. “We pulled the ditches and mixed a bunch of shingles with it, laid it back down, packed it. We had a big rain that night, and it was pretty sloppy the next day, ...but it set up, and it’s doing good. We’ve done two more roads. …With shingles, if it’s not raining, I’m hoping we can use it in wintertime.”
Anglin said they purchased the shingles from Sell’s Recycling in Yantis, a belly dump load costing around $500, of which it takes two-three loads per one-tenth of a mile, depending on the thickness.
“We were impressed with how that road held up,” Anglin said.
City Secretary Mary Doss suggested using shingles as “another option for these little side streets.”
Millings, or ground-up asphalt, was also discussed as an alternative.
“We’ll use millings on a dirt road,” Anglin said.
But, he prefers using millings in a mixture as a base for the roads rather than using them on top.
“Millings on top will start rub-boarding after a while,” Anglin explained. “That’s one thing those shingles haven’t done. … Most of the time, we have to blade that road once or twice when it starts rub-boarding. So far, those roads haven’t started rub-boarding, …and it doesn’t take that much equipment to put that stuff down.”
As of the meeting Tuesday, bids were approved for the repair and rebuilding of other streets throughout Como. At a workshop session held Sept. 10, the council discussed all the maintenance issues that needed attention.
“We’re still working through a lot of that, but we did get some bids back,” Radney said.
The city of Como received bids on crack fill and seal work to be done on 6th, Lynch and Smith streets.
“Those were streets that were redone on another block grant several years ago,” Radney explained. “Maintenance hasn’t been done on them, and they’re starting to get cracks. We don’t want our newer roads to deteriorate, because it defeats the purpose on what we’re trying to do.”
Culverts on Jeffries Street were included in the bid, along with resurfacing.
“It’s completely gone. It’s basically rock. … We’ve made that a priority,” Radney said.
Pending the contractor availability, work on Jeffries Street is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Additional work on Katy and Haywood streets includes a bridge that is believed to be in danger of collapse.
The approximately $56,000 bid includes ditches, culverts and asphalt through Texana Land & Asphalt in Sulphur Springs. A motion to accept the bid for all work discussed was passed.
“We want to get these done before the rainy season hits,” Radney said.