Henry Co. Roads work hard, seek funds, offer assistance

MT. PLEASANT — Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss updated the Henry County Board of Supervisors on the roads, made a formal request for ARPA funds, and showed that he is a team player for the benefit of the county.

According to Hotchkiss, painting edge lines throughout the county was put on a brief hold while operators were redirected to blading efforts following recent rain.

“They are trying to repair some of the potholes, washboards, and rumble strips, and everything else that is out there after about four months of not blading roads, so it is going to take a while,” Hotchkiss said.

He further explained the blading process in consideration of a recent phone call letting him know that blade operators were making multiple passes on the same stretch of road.

“They are doing total blading at the moment,” he said. “It is a slower process, because it takes a few more passes, it isn’t just a one pass and done, but if you want the potholes cut out, you got to get down deep enough to get them cut out.”

Blading is serious work for a rural Iowa roads department.

“If we have normal moisture in a normal year, we do put about 11-12,000 hours into those machines a year,” Hotchkiss said.

The crew has accomplished more than just blading and repairs.

“We had a road crew replace concrete patches on Racine and Oasis Avenue,” Hotchkiss said.

“On Oasis Avenue, I have been working with the concrete industry’s liaison to work with us to figure out what is going on with that two miles of paving. From early on it hasn’t performed very well.”

This last Thursday, the liaison came down to grab some cores for further analysis to determine why this stretch of concrete has not performed well.

“It is unfortunate, but on these projects we strive for perfection, and sometimes we just have to work with what we have,” Hotchkiss said of the struggles on Oasis Avenue.

On behalf of the Henry County Road Department, Hotchkiss formally requested $18,000 of ARPA Funds for materials and permits to install two septic systems and cover the construction of bathrooms in Salem and Trenton sheds.

The total estimate for the project comes in at $25,000, however, the roads department has decided to allocate some of their own labor.

This labor is an estimated $7,000 and includes constructing the septic bed this fall and framing in the two bathrooms this winter.

“Our request is for what we have to buy or hire done,” Hotchkiss explained. “We’re not requesting our labor because we can’t.”

“With us doing the work, we save money because we are not spending the money through ARPA funds,” he said. “But we are spending our labor and not spending that on something else.”

Supervisor Chad White made an inquiry for the potential of the roads department assisting Henry County Conservation in tearing down pit latrines.

“I don’t mind helping someone else,” Hotchkiss said. “We have to bill our time, and I don’t feel comfortable with other people borrowing our heavy equipment. So, if it fits in our schedule, I don’t mind providing the equipment and just charging out our labor.”

He did emphasize that helping other departments in the county would be secondary to county road needs.

“We do that sort of thing for the city a lot,” he said. “We just bill for our time whenever we do something outside of our roads functions.”

Hotchkiss also clarified the roads department’s helpfulness came with the stipulations that they are used solely for labor and that the responsibility remain with whatever department they are assisting.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com