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Town of Castor approves 50th St. repair

Council approved the additional road repair work unanimously
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By Kevin J. Sabo For the Advance

The Town of Castor will be digging into reserves to do some additional roadwork in the 2021 road repair season.

So far, a section of road near the Missionary Church has already been fixed, and once more material arrives a bad section of 52nd St. north of Jordahl’s will be repaired.

During their Aug. 10 meeting, council opted to add one more section of road, 50th St. around the intersection with 51st Ave.

According to Chief Administrative Officer Christopher Robblee, the road work by the Missionary Church cost between $6,500 and $8,000, for materials only. Between the two projects, the 2021 road repair budget will be exhausted, however with the state of the road, 50th St. needs the work as well.

“I need direction from council if we are going to fix 50th Street,” said Robblee.

“It’s $12,500 to do that section of road, it’s bigger (than the Missionary Church section) and the potholes are so much deeper.”

Ultimately, in a motion by Coun. Rod Zinger, council decided to draw the $12,500 from reserves to repair the road.

“If we keep leaving it, it’s going to get worse and worse,” said Zinger.

“We can’t afford to pave it like we are supposed to.”

The fix being done on each of these sections of road is an asphalt overlay, sealing the bad sections of road, in theory sealing them from getting water and ice in them, preventing the potholes from getting worse.

A proper fix for 50th St. alone, which would involve tearing up and re-laying the road surface, would cost around $100,000 - an amount unavailable in the town budget.

Unfortunately, according to Robblee, even once sealed, the potholes will continue to settle some, and the Town will be required to budget around an extra $6,000 for pothole filling on these sealed sections of road in 2022.

Mayor Richard Elhard noted that the section by the Missionary Church was already an improvement over what it was.

“That piece they did (by the Missionary Church) looks decent,” said Elhard.

Coun. Zinger agreed.

Council approved the additional road repair work unanimously.