Council hires Baldwin for blacktop surveys and advances street improvement plans

Council minutes from early 1959 show repeated steps to advance a program for regrading and blacktopping designated side streets. Engineer Baldwin met with the council and quoted a $300 fee to furnish engineering services to survey and prepare streets for blacktopping; the clerk was directed to advertise and to notify property owners on Highway 16 to register openings for driveways.

In March the council formally voted to hire Mr. Baldwin to make the street survey and approved lowering and replacing a water main at the Highway 16 and Searles Street crossing to meet required depths for paving work. The street committee was tasked with inspecting alleys and streets for gravel and repairs; the town discussed numbering streets as a possible Lions Club project and asked for further consideration on whether name changes were feasible.

These entries indicate the council took procedural and contracting steps—approving an engineering fee, directing notices to property owners, and authorizing physical work on mains—while routine bill payments and budget allocations were handled in standard fashion in each meeting.