Street, sidewalk repairs on 10th, 11th to begin this summer

by Nathan Arneal
Published 3/29/17

Every year the North Bend City Council passes a 6-year street improvement plan, but it’s been much longer than six years since any significant improvements have been made.

That should change this summer, as the council reviewed plans to replace the bricks on 11th and 10th streets with pavement at its March 21 meeting.
Earlier that day, mayor Jeff Kluthe and city clerk Theresa Busse met with engineers from JEO Consulting who are drawing up the plans. With Kluthe absent from the council meeting, Busse summarized the plans for the council.

The project encompasses six total blocks and will be broken into three two-block sections. Shortly after Old Settlers in late June, construction will start on the two brick blocks of 11th Street, which run from Main Street east to the city park.

New regulations require sidewalks to be 6 feet wide, so the current 5-foot sidewalks along the north side of 11th Street will be replaced and widened an additional foot.

“It should be a win-win for anybody along there,” Busse said. “Actually, those owners are going to get free sidewalks installed for them.”

When brick streets have been replaced with concrete in the past, people collected the bricks for use in various projects. That will not be allowed this time.

“Jeff (Kluthe) told (JEO) we don’t want to mess with slowing up the project,” Busse said, “and the liability and people getting hurt trying to load them.”
Once 11th Street is complete, the construction will move to the four blocks of bricks on 10th Street running west from Main Street.

The project will leave Ninth Street as the only remaining brick street in North Bend. Ninth Street remains in the 6-year plan, and the city hopes to convert it to pavement in a few years, Busse said.

In other business, the council continues the process of adding a new well to the city’s water system. After looking at several options, the council is focussing on a site about a half mile north of town on County Road 7 (Cottonwood Street in town).

Tracy McConnell of Grosch Irrigation reported the results of a test bore dug across the road from the site. He said at 88 feet they struck sandstone, which produces water.

“The best thing about it is there aren’t a lot of other wells into that sandstone,” McConnell said. “No one else has looked or found it, I guess. So that’s good. The bad thing is, no one has a well into it so you don’t know how much water it’s going to make or try to get a check on the quality.”

McConnell said so far, everything looks good for the site being able to support a city well. The next step is to drill a 6-inch well on the site and do a water quality test. If that checks out, a 24-hour test would be conducted. If that turns out OK, the full production well would be installed.

The council voted to proceed with the test well.

The council is also in the process of accepting bids to make improvements to the city maintenance shop south of the city park. The improvements will include new windows and insulation to make the shop warmer in the winter.

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