Resident convinces Upper Burrell to reconsider street paving list

For those who think one person can’t affect local government decisions, Dan Myers is proof to the contrary.

The Upper Burrell resident wasn’t happy when he heard township supervisors planned to seal-coat Chapeldale Drive. He said it didn’t make sense because he felt so many other township roads, including Turkey Ridge Road where he lives, are in much worse shape.

Myers made his case to supervisors at a recent meeting of the board, arguing against their plan to resurface Chapeldale and Dove Drive.

He provided photos of the roads to back up his contention that others needed it more.

“I don’t know how you can justify spending that money on one of the better roads in the township,” Myers said. “If you do nothing to Chapeldale, it will be fine next year.”

Township engineer Dave Kerchner of Bankson Engineering, who had recommended resurfacing Chapeldale to stave off deterioration of that road, agreed it would likely take a few years for appreciable deterioration to occur.

Myers, a former township supervisor, made a believer of Supervisor Chairman Ross Walker III.

“I tend to agree with Dan about Chapeldale compared to these other roads,” Walker said.

In addition, the only bid for the Chapeldale Drive-Dove Drive project came in at $81,240, which was about $20,400 more than the estimated cost of $61,000. That prompted Bankson to recommend the lone bid from Holbein Inc. of Sarver be rejected and the project be rebid.

The supervisors agreed to reject the Holbein bid. But instead of seeking new contract bids for that project, they agreed to reevaluate which township roads to address.

“We can’t continue to just use cold patch,” Myers said, referring to the temporary fix that has been used in the past.

Kerchner said the reason so many township roads are in poor condition is that they lack a substructure to support surface paving.

He said many began as dirt roads and then seal-coating — the application of tar or oil and stone chips — was eventually applied. However, with no base to support it, that surface falls apart.

“There’s a new process now called reprofiling where they come in and ground up what’s there and then lay it down so you have something as a base and then seal coat,” Kerchner said.

“It’s significantly cheaper than putting hot mix down,” he said.

Along with the Chapeldale-Dove Drive project, the supervisors rejected a $35,300 bid from Russell Standard Corp. to resurface some of the seven roads in the Ross Plan.

That bid came in at about $7,400 more than the estimate and will be rebid.

Speaking of Myers, Walker said, “He did a lot of work and convinced us those roads are in pretty good shape.”

“That objection just changed the use of money in the township to the tune of $95,000,” Walker said.