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  • Eureka City may need to find alternative to getting rotomill to city

By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent


A Eureka city council member was hoping that Juab County would haul rotomill the county had donated to the city to the city.
Nick Castleton, who has been the council member over the city cemetery project in Eureka, met with Juab County Commissioners seeking their help in getting the 500 tons of rotomill the county had donated from the place near Mona where it is stored to Eureka.
However, that, most likely, will not happen.
"Because it is quite a distance," said Castleton, who will become mayor of Eureka in January, "it will cost $8,000 and that, in Eureka's budget, is a whole lot of money."
He wondered, he said, if the county could do the hauling job for the city. It could be done on a winter day, when the weather was warm and clear. It would be too cold for laying asphalt but would be dry and warm enough to haul the rotomill.
The county used to help Eureka with their road resurfacing projects, he said, but that had not been done for a number of years. He thought that might be because of the EPA work that was done in the city to rid the area of hazardous mine tailing material that had been used in the city. At that time, he said, the EPA repaired the streets that had been damaged in the process.
Now the city was having a water and sewer project done that would require the streets to be repaired again. Therefore, the city would not need road work done for awhile.
"Each project had money included to fix the roads; 70 to 80 percent of the roads will need to be resurfaced and we convinced them to do both projects at the same time," Castleton said.
He reasoned that the money saved could be used on hauling the rotomill material to Eureka.
He has been working on a cemetery project and has moved the 100-year-old concrete fence posts to create an area along the north and east sides of the cemetery where there is now no fence and the road is wide enough to allow vehicles to park when there is a funeral or when visitors are at the cemetery.
The area to receive rotomill, said Castleton, consisted of 20-feet on the east side and 30-feet on the north side of the cemetery.
"That sounds more like a parking lot than a road," said Ingram.
The roads in the cemetery are so narrow that they create problems and this will help with that, said Castleton.
Some leveling had been done and some soil had been brought in from one of the mine dumps but it was not much help because it had large stones in it and also a lot of sand. The native soil there is clay, he said.
Bob Garrett, county road superintendent, and Lynn Ingram, assistant county road superintendent, both were at the meeting to discuss the request.
One point, said Garrett, was that the rotomill was located in the Mona area, and not the Mills area, as Castleton had thought. That would mean that hauling charges would not be as much as the quote that Castleton had obtained.
"Even the county hires trucks," said Garrett. "We can only haul 26-tons at a time."
That consisted of one truck and a pup.
He said the big trucking companies had trucks that could haul 42-tons in one trip. Those trucks, while they seemed to be costly, were actually not because they saved time and the cost of employees. It took one employee and one truck to haul the 26-tons.
In the days when the county helped with road projects in Eureka, said Garrett, it was because the city contracted with the county and gave the county C road money, which came to communities, to repair roads. The county had B road money which is used on county roads.
Ingram said that the money for the roads comes from the gas tax collected and the state apportions it to the various road categories.
The Class B and C road system with a funding program was established by the Utah Legislature in 1937 as a means of providing assistance to counties and incorporated municipalities for the improvement of roads and streets throughout the state.
The funds differ from ordinary local revenues because they are subject to administrative direction by the state in according to legislative provision.
Utah Department of Transportation is the administrative authority on behalf of the state.
Another problem, said Garrett, was that the rotomill was better moved and worked with when the weather was warm.
"The hotter the day, the better," he said.
Rotomill did have a lot of lumps. Some of them were fairly large and it was difficult to roll. The heat helped with that.
Another item that had not been considered, said Garrett, was that the county already had an expense involved in the rotomill. The county had it hauled to the Mona site and, in addition, they had use for the rotomill. For example, it could be used at the fairgrounds.
"How generous can the county afford to be?" he asked.
The county was being generous, said Byron Woodland, commissioner.
"I would like to make a proposition," said Rick Carlton, commissioner. "Get a cost on what it would cost to haul the rototill. Sit with your city council and see what funds you have. Maybe you could budget some money."
Another thing that Castleton could consider, Carlton said, was that he could contact UDOT and see if they had any jobs closer to Eureka that would not require hauling the material such a distance.
Perhaps it would also be possible, he said, to get such material from the contractors who would be rebuilding the streets in Eureka after their summertime water and sewer line construction.
"There is no intention to rotomill the streets in Eureka," said Castleton.
However, he said, the city council could reexamine the cost of hauling and, perhaps, they could fit it into the city budget since it would be a reduced cost.
Garrett will work with Castleton to see if the city could get a better price if he, using his expertise, helps with that part of the project.
"Come back next spring," said Carlton. "According to Bob Garrett, that is the best time to move the rotomill."
Since the spring is a busy time for haulers, however, said Garret, perhaps it would be better to haul the material to Eureka now and then lay it in the Spring.