Combined effort expected to save money and time
City officials and community leaders are celebrating the results of a cooperative effort which they report could save as much as $200,000 or more in construction and development costs while also providing a new access route to Highway 34 heading into a major 1st Street renovation project.
The Aurora City Council approved a change order at last week’s meeting, representing the final piece of a puzzle which was altered in recent weeks for the community’s overall benefit. That $279,280 change order paved the way for construction to begin immediately on streets in the Streeter Subdivision, in effect providing an alternate route to Highway 34 other than 1st Street.
City Administrator Rick Melcher explained that the decision to prioritize completion of streets in the Streeter Subdivision was seen as a mutually beneficial approach.
“Constructing the Grant Street and Highway 34 access made it financially beneficial to begin development of Streeter 5th and 6th subdivisions, which had been discussed with Streeter LLC and followed a very similar process as was done with Aurora Housing Development Corporation on Streeter 3rd and 4th subdivisions, although there was one significant difference,” Melcher explained.
The city had realized the deterioration of 1st Street from Highway 34 south to the BNSF Railroad. Within that segment of roadway, he noted, city crews started to see some cupping and cracking that was allowing moisture to get under the street into the road bed and speeding up deterioration of the street.
“So the Public Works Committee and city council felt it would be a good time to design and take bids on the 1st Street improvement project, which included the infrastructure extensions within Streeter 5th and 6th subdivisions,” Melcher said. “We felt with the additional work it would reduce the per lineal foot cost for each project, improve the schedule of work to be performed, provide much better access to residents within or near the 1st Street improvement project and allow the water system to maintain a more consistent water pressure and flow while making the upgrades.
“The city is excited about the improvements that will be made to 1st Street and allowing for additional residential lots as well as fulfilling the need for additional commercial lots along Highway 34,” Melcher added. “While taking on multiple projects at one time, it is essential all groups — the city, Aurora Development Corporation, Aurora Housing Development Corporation and Streeter LLC — continue to work together for the benefit of the community.”
Mayor Marlin Seeman noted that putting an entryway at the Highway 34 interchange into this subdivision was a decision city leaders been considering over the last couple of years.
“Streeter began to build up the south part of this subdivision, which the people can see there today, so now this is the next phase to be able to connect this subdivision with all of its homes and all of its living units to Highway 34,” he said. “It’s very simple to be able to do this. That’s the city’s commitment, and Streeter’s as well.”
Also playing a key role in what is being touted as a “win-win deal for the community” is Streeter, LLC, which is a partnership of the Farr Trust and Wortman Trust managed by Jayne Smith, Jacob Arendt, Emily Jasnowski and Gary Warren. The Streeter group has known for some time that street access out to Highway 34 would eventually be needed on the north part of the various subdivisions in west Aurora. City officials had anticipated that need as well and had been working with the Nebraska Department of Roads to secure an access from Highway 34 to the new housing subdivision.
“When the city started looking at improving 1st Street, the Mayor and Rick brought it to Streeter’s attention that it would sure be helpful if Streeter LLC could complete this access to 34 prior to construction starting on 1st street,” Warren recalled. “The city anticipated it could save on 1st Street construction costs by eliminating some of the temporary accesses they would otherwise have to create and potentially save on the time period needed to construct 1st street, all of which could save the city a significant amount.”
As for the benefit to Streeter LLC, Warren noted that it also seemed likely that adding the Grant and Bates street segments to the much larger 1st street project might result in a more economical cost for Streeter’s infrastructure cost on its property south of Highway 34 and west of 1st Street. As those discussions evolved, Melcher, Seeman, council president Dick Phillips and the appropriate council committee met with Arendt and Warren from Streeter LLC to discuss how this might be accomplished.
Streeter had already extended its financial commitments significantly with the Streeter 3rd and 4th subdivisions and the Northridge Second subdivision, Warren noted, but agreed that if the bids for this project would come in at a reasonable level Streeter would consider going ahead and expending the funds to develop the access to Highway 34.
When the bids were opened in May, the numbers came in favorably for both the much larger 1st Street and the Streeter part of the project. Even though this will cost Streeter, LLC approximately $600,000, Warren said he believes that cost might be $50,000 to $75,000 less than if it had tried to bid it out on a stand-alone project basis.
“To sum it all up this should save the community as a whole somewhere in the $200,000 to $250,000 range in terms of overall costs,” Warren said. “It will also provide more and better access out of the west part of Aurora for residents; open up nine additional residential lots for development in cooperation with Aurora Housing Development Corporations; and open up 6.5 acres of commercial lots along Highway 34 for development in cooperation with the Aurora Development Corporation.
“This is a great example of how our community makes progress and does so economically when government, the development entities like ADC, AHDC and the foundations come together to plan a project,” Warren continued. “Streeter is looking forward to working with the city, ADC and AHDC to move this project to completion and sell the lots in this new development.”
As for the expected start date of infrastructure installation and street construction, Seeman said work should begin by the middle of July, if not sooner.
“The contract with the developer, Mid-Nebraska, is that as soon as possible they could start, hopefully by the mid-July date, but we think it’s going to be much sooner than that because of the availability of their equipment,” he said.