Received a good lesson on how the street department keeps our streets up

By: 
Mayor Randy Hibberd

Wow! Friday’s football game with Fruitland was one for the books! Cathy and I were watching the game with our friends, Ron and Pat West. I made the comment to Ron that it looked like it might be a painful night when Weiser was down 6 to 18. But what a comeback! Thirty-four unanswered points for a win of 40 to 18! Good job Weiser football! And a 5 and 0 season to boot!
 Every Monday morning the city department heads get together first thing to discuss what they have going on for the week and coordinate their efforts.
 At last week’s meeting, Pat Malay of the street department said he needed the help of whoever was available to crack seal on Commercial, Main, E. 9th and State Streets, as well as the airport taxi way.
 Crack sealing is a very labor-intensive effort involving routing smaller cracks to create an opening, air-blasting cracks to clean them out, sweeping up the debris, and at least a three-man team to seal the cracks with a rubber product at a temperature of 360 degrees F. All of this takes place while also dealing with traffic control.
 So, I thought this request for help would help me learn a little more of what goes on around the City. I looked at my schedule and figured Friday would be a good day. By that time, the crew had taken care of all of the City streets and were working at the airport.
 Ron McDaniel was in charge and was very good at educating me on the process. A student helicopter pilot had swept the taxiway with his bird the day before and the cracks were wide enough to make routing unnecessary. So, it was a four-man crew I was working with at that point consisting of Ron, Rayne Loomis, Keilan Phillips, and Brian Downing.
 It was fun watching this group work as a well-oiled machine and seeing how much they could accomplish in a day. My part was doing whatever unskilled work could be done and then staying out of the way. I’m still trying to get the black stuff out from under my fingernails.
 In other City news, a company named Energy Services Group has been distributing packages of energy efficient light bulbs to residents. If you have not received yours already, you should receive them this week. The light bulbs ultimately came from Bonneville Power which supplies electricity to Weiser.
 The City receives what amounts to points for purchasing power from Bonneville. The points were used to supply the light bulbs. In addition to the light bulbs, you are eligible for more free energy saving devices including 14 more light bulbs, a power strip, a showerhead, and two aerators by either filling out the post card included with the lights or by going to bit.ly/weiserkit. So please take advantage of these free products. You earned them just by paying your city bill.
 There are also a number of rebates available through Bonneville Power for energy efficient projects, such as new windows, heat pumps, insulation, etc. For more information you can go to the cityofweiser.net website, find the Documents and Links tab, and scroll down to IDEA. The rebates are fairly substantial and may just be able to help you afford that project you have wanted to do.
 Some good news on the COVID front. The number of new cases is leveling out. At this point it does not appear that the worst-case scenario projected earlier will be realized. However, the situation remains very serious. More information may be found on the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare website.  
 Well, that’s it for this week. Hope you are enjoying this beautiful fall weather!

Category:

Signal American

18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
FAX: (208) 549-1718
 

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