Daines talks Chip and Seal and another theatre milestone is ahead

Road along 200 West undergoing chip and seal.

LOGAN — On KVNU’s monthly Speak to the Mayor program on Wednesday, Logan Mayor Holly Daines praised city road crews who have been out in the heat during the chip and seal program this month.

“And some people say, ‘we hate chip and seal, why do you have to do it?’ But the reason we do it is it saves taxpayers a lot of money, because it’s much easier to do the chip and seal that keeps a road in a good condition. I mean, if it really deteriorates enough that you have to rebuild the whole road, it is vastly more expensive,” Daines explained.

The mayor said they have a schedule that they rotate through for all the roads in the city. Each one will get chipped and sealed about every 5 to 7 years. She said it’s a big expense in the budget, but it is proactive maintenance.

Daines said she would like to thank the motorists that particularly drive on the northwest side of town, she acknowledged it’s been rough going as they have had a number of projects going that have required closures.

“The strategy was, let’s finish this project, and then open this project, and, as you know, sometimes delays happen, projects take longer. Then we have a project that has to be started, because, for instance, we have grant funding that has a certain window of time. It’s like, wow if we don’t start that project now, we won’t finish that in time for the deadlines.”

She said they have had the railroad issues at 1400 North 600 West that has driven everyone crazy. Daines said negotiations continue with Union Pacific to get that functioning again.

The railroad was recently granted a temporary restraining order that has covered the traffic lights and reverted the intersection back to a four-way stop.

The mayor said construction projects have incurred much higher costs. She said she doesn’t know if any approved big private developments have had to be put on hold because of exorbitant costs.

But the mayor said architects have told the city that construction costs are going up 30 to 40 percent in what they bid within a year or two. That being said, work continues on the new city plaza and the new Logan Library building.

“It’s exciting to see those projects,” Daines added. “If you’ve driven down Main street, the steel on our new three-story library is really going up quickly, they’re getting that done. We had some delays on the concrete, but they were able to kind of pivot, and they had enough of the foundations in that they could start on the steel, and finally the concrete that I think we talked about last time.

“The whole state was having a shortage in getting concrete because a batch plant had gone down, and our 100 West bridge is probably a month behind schedule because they were waiting for concrete.”

She explained they couldn’t take little batch amounts, it had to be, at least for the deck of the bridge, one great big pour and they couldn’t go on until they got a big order of concrete.

Recently, the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre company celebrated 30 seasons with a festival on Center Street, but the mayor said another milestone is coming soon.

“A lot of people helped build that and make it happen, and certainly we recognize Michael Ballam and the others that have helped make that possible,” she said. “It’s been possible because we had the beautiful Ellen Eccles Theatre that he and others were instrumental in restoring, and the city bought that way, way back, what 30 years ago, when there was a possibility it could be torn down.

“Now that it’s restored and beautiful and coming up they’re going to be celebrating the 100th anniversary of when it was built.”

Daines said they will have some fun festivities in connection with that.

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