North Judson Planning for 2018 Paving Projects, Fork Truck Purchase

North Judson’s streets that need to be repaved will have to wait a year. During last week’s town council meeting, Town Superintendent Marshall Horstmann said the town wouldn’t be able to do paving this year. But he went ahead and got two quotes, so the town will be ready to go next spring. “What I was wanting to do is, whichever company you pick, I can get with them and they can do up a contract, so we can encumber the money from this year to next year,” he explained.

The prices range from just under $167,000 up to nearly $183,000. The town council plans to choose a paving contractor next month. Efforts are also underway to get some state funding to cover the cost. Horstmann is finalizing the town’s application for a Community Crossings matching grant.

Meanwhile, he said he’s still working to repair a lift station damaged by a hit-and-run driver last month. “We received both the pumps and the disconnect box,” Horstmann said. “I’ve got the hose cut into the disconnect box now for the conduit, so I’ll probably go out there tomorrow and change out the disconnect box. We’ve dug up the conduit, found it, and we’re going to just dig back a little ways and reroute it, so it comes up alongside the concrete. We can’t use the old piece of conduit because it’s broke off right at the concrete. So we’ll take care of that.” The next step is to wait for the arrival of a new control panel.

Additionally, the planned closure of a local business will mean some new equipment for North Judson. When Norwayne Lumber Company ends operations, the town will buy its fork truck for $7,500, following approval from the council last week.