Residents in the City of Hardy have certainly seen improvements in recent months following street repairs made possible through a grant from the State Street Aid Program.
According to Mayor Ernie Rose, recently four streets were repaired with more repairs to come.
“They called me in 2019 and said we should get one in 2020. All kinds of things happened, and it kept getting put off because of Covid. We had applied for $250,000, he said because they couldn’t get us in until 2021, they were going to give us another $300,000,” Rose said.
In total, approximately one mile’s worth of roadway was paved in different areas of the city.
“We picked the worst streets we had. South Spring, Wahpeton, Spring Wood and Robbin Hood. Those are the four streets we ended up doing and it came up to $321,000 and the city put up the $21,000 but they said we will likely get that back because when they came in, they had about 40 ton of asphalt they didn’t have to put down because they didn’t need it,” Rose said.
Some residents who were aware the grant was coming in 2019 had expressed concerns as to the lengthy delay, but Rose said a transition in leadership with the state played a role in the issue.
“The new supervisor came down and said the road wasn’t prepped, the ditches weren’t up to their standards and the road wasn’t nearly wide enough in one of the areas. They were going to cut it from the list, but I asked if I could get it widened and cleared up within two weeks, would they move forward with it,” Rose said. “They said yes, so I contacted the county and I showed them the problem areas and they helped us get it prepared. It was outstanding what the county did.”
Rose said although the project for those streets have been wrapped up, road improvements are far from over.
“We’ve started a new project and are going around to different areas. We’ve started doing some ditch work to areas where it washes out and are trying to change the flow of the water with some drainage, culverts and other things,” Rose said. “Every time a rain comes, we go to see where it’s washing over or washing out. Instead of just piling gravel up, we’re testing clay.”
Rose also said it is in his plans that in the future, all residents will be able to enjoy a hard surfaced roadway in front of their residence.
“We discussed at our last meeting to try to put at least a hard surfaced road in front of every resident in the city within the next year. It will probably be chip and seal but we’re working with the companies to try to get it worked out. We’re spending a little extra to get a hard surfaced road in front of every residence in the city,” Rose said. “Everything so far is working out good.”
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
