Commissioners Meet with Engineer
Glasscock County Commissioners met with highway engineer Don Bonifay for the second time at their regular session May 14. They have been considering whether to use Bonifay’s services on a contract basis, and previously met with him at a called meeting April 2. Bonifay was Ector County’s highway engineer for 20 years, and before that, was with South Texas Construction. At the first meeting, Bonifay said he needed to drive Glasscock County’s roads, and to research dates when roads were paved and last seal-coated, to get an idea of the road situation.
Having done that, Bonifay reported that the county’s roads are in good shape, and commended the commissioners for the work they’ve done. He said if he works for the county, he would set up a priority system regarding when seal-coating and paving should be done. He said age alone isn’t an indicator of a need for seal-coating, but has to be considered along with population, amount and type of traffic and other factors.
Paving Companies Not Interested in Small Jobs
He warned the commissioners’ court that it will be hard for them to find companies to do paving and seal-coating this year. He said Jones Bros. and Reese Albert are not doing this work for cities and counties (except Odessa and Ector County, their home), since they are having trouble keeping up with state work, which they prefer. He said neither of the two bid on Andrews County’s $400,000 job this year. He said Price Construction isn’t really interested in small jobs, but they might bid; Van Zant is still in the asphalt business, but no longer doing seal-coating. He said all the companies are short on personnel, and most have equipment sitting idle, due to competition from oil field work.
Bonifay said he is opposed to Glasscock County buying seal-coating equipment, because 1) it sits idle most of the year, and 2) personnel can’t be hired who know how to do the work. He said the county’s best bet in the future will probably be to try to work with Reagan and Sterling counties to create a project large enough to attract companies to bid.
Commissioners decided they wanted to hire Bonifay, and he is to bring a contract for their review to the next commissioners’ court meeting May 21 at 8:30 a.m.