Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

City accepts street paving bid, work will start in two weeks

After preparing the way with culverts and ditches, the City of Gurdon took another step toward its major street repair Thursday by accepting the low bid to buy 8,000 tons of asphalt for approximately $414,000.

Mayor Clayton Franklin said, "Jet Asphalt and Rock Company Inc., out of El Dorado, bid slightly under Statewide out of Hot Springs. We decided to go with the low bidder, since Jet said they could get started on our first half of street paving within two weeks."

The half to be done before winter includes Kanis Road, Red Springs, Beirne Road, 5th Street, Go-Devil Road, Front Street, and the two cut-throughs to Highway 67 that go in front of NAPA and under the underpass, according to the mayor.

"We will also get Walnut," Franklin said. "We are going to monitor the asphalt paving, as some of the streets will have to be two-inches or more thick due to potholes and such, but there may be stronger streets that will be fine with an inch-and-a-half. We want to do it right but we also want enough asphalt left to do the whole first half."

There will be another contract in the spring for the second half of the job, which means a second bid.

"This first bid will be enough to cover these first streets, and then we will quit for the winter," Franklin said.

Jim Caldwell, the street superintendent, said a Jet representative was already on site this past week when some of the preliminary work was being done by the local street department. When called, a Jet representative said the company would go to Princeton for a week and then start in Gurdon.

"I feel like Jet will do us a fine job," Franklin said. "They have a good name and their name means something to them."

James Franklin and Doug Quillin, from the senior adult center, served on the bidding committee.