City may soon get help repairing streets from Wharton County commissioners
By BENJAMIN C. SHARP bensharp@journal-spectator.com

Wharton County may soon begin resurfacing streets in the city of Wharton.

City Council members Monday approved signing an interlocal agreement with the county to provide street construction and maintenance services.

Under such an arrangement, the county does the actual work while the municipality picks up the costs of the materials. A similar agreement has already been worked out between the county and the city of East Bernard.

"We pay for all the materials and they do the labor," said City Manager Andres Garza Jr.

County commissioners began doing their own road paving this year. Each commissioner chipped in money to jointly purchase an aggregate spreader and asphalt distributor, to machines critical for paving.

The point was to save money. With contractors having insurance and overhead costs, only a portion of what they were being paid by the county actually went to road materials. That translated to less miles of pavement.

Getting a contractor to the scene in a timely fashion was a problem as well. Commissioners would frequently grade a particular gravel road, then watch it sit there un-surfaced.

The bidding process was a hassle as well. Many projects in the past had suffered from a lack of interested bidders, with some jobs lucky to receive a sole bid. The City of Wharton knows all about that problem. Several projects have had to be re-bid in the past in order to attract a single contractor.

Having just one contractor bid on a job is not ideal for getting the best bang for your buck, city officials said.

Since the county has a vested interest in the community, city officials believe the quality and timeliness of the work would be elevated.

The contract, once signed by the county, will be effective for one year, with one-year renewals available.

City manager Garza said the arrangement could be useful for a pending project on Columbus Street.