Village to clean up gravel that grates on residents

The Grafton Public Works Board on Monday laid to rest concerns about last year’s reconstruction of streets in the Heritage Settlement neighborhood.

While most residents are pleased with the work, there are lingering concerns regarding the gravel shoulders that line the streets — Prairie Run, Heritage Court and Homestead Trail — Public Works Director Amber Thomas told the board.

Residents are concerned that some of the gravel spread onto yards and ditches in the area, she said, and they have asked how the gravel will impact the asphalt roadway.

“The gravel shoulders did not have a lot of time to settle,” Thomas said, and there wasn’t much frost this winter to keep the gravel where it was placed so some of it ended up moving off the shoulder.

Village crews will rake the gravel out of lawns and ditches this spring, she said.

“Going into future winter seasons, we do not expect this to be an issue,” Thomas said.

Bill Malone, 752 Prairie Run, asked  if residents will be notified when the village crews come out to do the work, something Thomas said she will do.

“We just want to be informed,” Peter Schultz, 722 Heritage Ct., said. “I think that’s a lot of the frustration. We just want a plan.”

Kyle Hynes asked if there is an adhesive that could be used to keep the gravel in place.

“That gravel is going to stay in place,” Thomas said. “It will function a lot better (in the future) than it has in the last six months.”

Hynes also asked if families could elect to remove the gravel from in front of their yards, something Thomas said can’t be done.

The gravel, she said, has been engineered to maintain the integrity of the roadways.

Some residents questioned how stable the gravel is, particularly at intersections where they said delivery trucks have already been kicking the stones into yards.

Board member Clark Evans asked if the village could get a cost estimate for installing curb and gutter at the corners.

“I feel that might address some of the issues,” he said.

Residents also asked how the village plans to maintain the path that leads around the subdivision. Much of the path is made up of gravel, they noted, and what asphalt is there is in bad shape.

“The path has always been an issue and it continues to be,” Malone said. “I don’t think anything’s been done with it in 30-plus years.

    “Is the village serious about ever paving it or is this going to be business as usual? It just keeps getting pushed out. Will you just maintain the gravel?”

     Thomas noted that the village received bids to pave the path but the cost came in at more than $100,000.

“It was not within the budget,” she said. “We will go out there and try to maintain the portions that are gravel.”

Board Chairman Tom Krueger suggested the village consider including paving of the path in its five-year capital plan, even if the work has to be done in phases.

“Then it becomes a matter of budgeting for it,” he said. “At least then it’s on the village’s radar.”

“For our subdivision, it would be much appreciated,” Hynes said. “A lot of our families and our residents do use it.”

Evans noted that the path serves to not only allow residents to walk through their neighborhood but to also reach the Shady Hollow subdivision to the north.

The Heritage Settlement neighborhood was developed in the 1970s using a rural road design, with 30-foot asphalt roads and three-foot gravel shoulders on each side.

The village considered converting the streets to an urban design with sidewalks, curb and gutters when it was rebuilt last year, but for a variety of practical and budgetary reasons the decision was made to reconstruct them in the way they were originally designed.