MARSHALL — A concrete road project on Lyon County State Aid Highway 5 has caused some coffee shop controversy, Lyon County Commissioners said Monday.
Commissioners told county highway engineer/public works director Anita Benson during a special meeting Monday that they received questions on why the county will use concrete instead of asphalt on the CSAH 5 project.
When the meeting ended, commissioners Bob Fenske and Rodney Stensrud said it was more coffee shop talk than questions from contractors.
But Benson said Monday asphalt contractors have been blunt with her about the project.
Bituminous contractors have been threatening they would be “doing everything in their power to stop this project from being concrete,” Benson said during the meeting.
When asked by the Independent later to be more specific, Benson said she had no additional comments.
Benson told the board she believes she made it very clear that, in the long-run, for the life cycle of the CSAH 5 project, concrete was money better spent than a bituminous project.
Benson said she was hired by the county to do her job, and she did an analysis of the cost and the project and concrete was the best choice.
Board chairman Mark Goodenow said he recalled several discussions about using concrete on CSAH 5.
“We approved that,” Goodenow said of concrete use.
After the meeting, commissioner Steve Ritter said he’s had questions about the project for the past three to four months and has told people concrete is the best use of money on the project. “Concrete, in the long-term, will have lower maintenance,” Ritter said.
Goodenow said he points out the long-term savings in maintenance and also the high price of oil as reasons to choose concrete.
Commissioner Bob Fenske said people are attaching a $1 million price tag to the concrete cost for the project. He didn’t recall getting cost figures on the life cycle of the project of the up-front costs of concrete use, Fenske said.
Benson said the use of concrete had been discussed at prior board meetings, but said she’d provide more details on cost comparisons at the May 6 meeting.
Fenske and commissioner Rodney Stensrud said after the meeting the $1 million concrete cost was coffee shop talk.
When asked by the Independent about Benson’s comment during the meeting of an apparent threat by bituminous contractors to stop the concrete project, commissioners said little.
“I have no response,” Fenske said.
Goodenow said sometimes talk between contractors and the engineer is different than talk they hear in the public.
