Resident unhappy with 110th Street chip and seal

PLEASANT PLAIN – A resident has expressed his displeasure with the recent chip and seal paving through Pleasant Plain, and the Jefferson County Supervisors agreed to personally inspect the complaint he raised.

During Monday morning’s meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors, Washington County resident Trevor Hanshaw spoke about the problems his mother has encountered, who resides on 110th Street in Pleasant Plain, one of the roads to receive new chip and seal asphalt this summer. Hanshaw said his mother has a concrete driveway, and when the new chip and seal was poured in June, it created a large lip between the road and the driveway that he estimated to be 5 inches tall.

“It’s worse than a speed bump,” Hanshaw told The Union after the meeting. “It’s barely tapered down. If it was a rock driveway, I would throw rock on it, but it’s not. It’s a big deal, and the right thing to do is to come and fix it.”

Hanshaw said that wasn’t the only problem, either. He said that the edge of his mother’s driveway has been damaged from the rock being ground into it, and he had to shovel “probably a thousand pounds” of sand left at the edge of the road where it meets the driveway.

“There’s so much sand along the edge of the road, you can’t weed eat it or you’ll tear yourself to pieces,” Hanshaw said.

Hanshaw said that part of his frustration comes from notifying the county engineer’s office before the chip and seal was poured so they could avoid these problems.

“They could have put a divot in front of the driveway,” Hanshaw said. “I called before they put rock down to say they need to slope the road in front of the house because there’s going to be a huge pitch.”

Hanshaw said he told Jefferson County Engineer DeWayne Heintz that the county would need to match the elevation of the road and driveway, but said that Heintz told him the county does not have to do that. Hanshaw told The Union that he hopes the county is willing to solve the problem by repaving the last 6 feet of the driveway so it matches the new elevation of the road.

The Union reached out to Heintz after the meeting, and Heintz said the county is willing to lay fresh chip and seal at the entrances of driveways so they are tapered and without a lip, and that Hanshaw is asking for the last 6 feet of the driveway to instead receive new concrete to bring it up to the road’s elevation. Heintz said his proposed solution is in line with Iowa DOT standards governing tapering at driveways.

Supervisor Lee Dimmitt said he was sympathetic to Hanshaw’s complaints and that he would feel the same way if he were in that situation, but added that the supervisors must be mindful of setting a precedent. He said the county would have to help all owners of concrete driveways if it helped one.

The supervisors voted 3-0 to go on a road tour Monday, Aug. 25 so they could all see the road and driveway under discussion.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com