Borger eyes $700,000 in pavement work; council told of microsurfacing and chip-seal bids

City staff told the council the public-works department has put chip-seal and microsurfacing projects out to bid and recommended a budget amendment to expand street maintenance work this year.

Bradley said the scope of maintenance is expected to be approximately $700,000, compared with roughly $300,000 spent last year and about $450,000 currently budgeted. “We’re gonna come in and budget amend the budget so we can get a little more done this year and do about $700,000 thousand dollars of street maintenance,” Bradley said.

Staff explained microsurfacing is more expensive than chip sealing — about 60% higher — and that the city plans to use microsurfacing on high-traffic, high-visibility corridors (example streets cited included parts of Main, College and Lakeview) while using chip seal for other routes. They also described a low-cost fog-seal treatment that can extend microsurfacing life.

Council did not vote on the budget amendment during the meeting; staff said the work will likely be scheduled for late summer/early fall (chip seal in September and microsurfacing in late September or October, weather permitting).

The city provided a fund-balance figure of about $740,000 and noted some of that balance would be used to increase this year’s maintenance spending.