Fremont fixing up streets

FREMONT – With winter long gone and warmer temperatures in store for the next few months, the city’s streets department has had crews out to take care of the potholes, cracks and other battle scars left behind by another taxing winter season.

Street Superintendent Bill Guhn said last week that the city’s road crews have been busy recently with street maintenance, filling potholes and sealing cracks on streets across Fremont.

“It’s an ongoing thing,” Guhn said of the road repairs.

He said workers had been patching things up on North Street and Dickinson Street with a crack-sealing machine to fix cracks on the roadway.

A city crew also spent time last week filling in a section on South Jefferson Street between Garrison Street and Birchard Avenue.

The street superintendent said the city was planning to pave three roads this year and also trying to address the intersection issue at State and Wood Streets.

At that intersection, a traffic signal was damaged in a May 27 storm and removed from service. Pending replacement of the signal, the intersection has been established as a two-way stop with stop signs in the north- and southbound lanes of Wood Street.

Guhn said the traffic at that intersection will become much heavier once nearby St. Joseph Central Catholic High School resumes classes in August.

The city’s summer efforts come after a winter that, while slightly more mild than the 2013-14 winter season that produced record totals for snow accumulation, still provided some challenges for the street department.

Guhn said in March that road crews had been working on streets including West State Street, Rawson Avenue and Tiffin Street to try and mitigate damage done by freezing and thawing.

City Councilman Bob Gross said he last week that he has received more feedback and questions on the condition of city streets in the last four or five months than any other topic, including the Ballville Dam removal.

Gross said most residents had expressed displeasure with road conditions. He said he didn’t fault the city administration or street department, which he said has done a good job with the resources they have available.

“Frankly, patches and repairs aren’t enough. We need significant road resurfacing,” Gross said.

The councilman added that road repairs had been overshadowed in recent months and years by larger city infrastructure projects like the dam removal, WPCC expansion and the reservoir.

Kyle Humbard, a Fremont resident who lives on Sugar Street, said he has repeatedly asked the city to fix potholes on his street brought on by the subfreezing temperatures and heavy snow from this winter.

Humbard said the city administration and street department had responded to his concerns.

“The mayor has had the streets department patch the holes on Sugar Street. They used “hot mix” which they said is more permanent than the “cold mix” that they used in the past. Hopefully it lasts,” Humbard said in an email to the News-Messenger.

dacarson@gannett.com

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Twitter:@DanielCarson7