Gardnerville talks paving over next 15 years

Gardnerville Town Board members were more interested in using asphalt on roads than for a parking lot at Mountain View Nature Park.

Both the park and the town’s future road work were discussed at length at the Sept. 5 board meeting

Residents who spoke about the park said they were pretty happy with the status quo there. The park is located behind Carson Valley Middle School and includes a big pond.

However, they urged town board members to address the roads, particularly in Chichester.

Last year, a Chichester resident asked the county to devote $12 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to repave the streets in the neighborhood. County commissioners decided that money should come from Gardnerville, which maintains its own streets.

Town Manager Erik Nilssen said the pavement in the neighborhood has been shrinking for years and is particularly bad in the cul de sacs.

Efforts to slice sections out of the streets and rebuild them have not been particularly successful, Nilssen said.

Chichester is the largest subdivision in town and poses biggest road maintenance challenge facing the town.

 “Construction on the roadways within Chichester started in 1999 and all roadways (except Cardiff Drive) were completed by 2003,” he said. “Chichester is famous for longitudinal cracking. The fact is the roadways are all over 20 years.”

“Lighter maintenance such as an overlay is not an option on these roads as the remaining pavement will continue to shrink causing cracks to reflect through the new overlay.”

Nilssen prepared a list of every square yard of street in the town, which maintains its own roads, parks and provides trash service.

Much of that research will inform work on roads over the next 15 years, Nilssen said.

He said rebuilding Industrial Way, which could start potholing, would cost around $700,000. The town is seeking a grant to help pay for that work, but it would still require a 25 percent match.

While he expects the amount of revenue to work on roads to be around $1 million a year over the next 15 years, the actual purchasing power would be closer to $9.7 million depending on inflation.

“The roadways in the industrial area are the worst in town,” Nilssen wrote. “Industrial Way will start to pothole in the near future. The last major pavement maintenance project on Industrial Way as an overlay in 1993.”

Town board members also prioritized the paving of the Gardnerville Station parking lot next year after work on Highway 395 is completed.

Town Board member Bill Chernock said that he would like to revisit the Mountain View Park plan to have it reflect what residents would prefer in the park.