Spend any amount of time with Holbrook City Manager Ray Alley and two messages come through loud and clear: “If there’s work that needs to get done, let’s just cut to the chase and get it done,” and “I don’t see much sense in paying others to do work that we’re more than qualified to do on our own.”
It’s with these philosophies at the fore that, Alley estimates, the City of Holbrook is saving
“easily” $500,000 on street improvement projects this spring and summer.
Rather than hire a contracting company to do the roadwork, Alley, himself a contractor, and the city street department are undertaking the bulk of the project.
By the time construction wraps up in the coming months, Holbrook street department personnel, along with occasional help from city employees in other departments, will have reconstructed more than two-thirds of a mile of roadway in Holbrook.
The in-town construction is being concentrated around schools, churches and subdivisions. As they replace crumbling and pitted roads, Alley said the street crews are also making infrastructure repairs such as replacing old fire hydrants and valves, and patching curbs and sidewalks.
In partnership with Navajo County, the city has nearly completed 2.1 miles of new road along a stretch of McLaws Road, a $280,000 project that cost the city only $60,000.
In total, Alley anticipates spending about $300,000 for the street projects.
“It’s simple,” said Alley. “When we can make the budget stretch further, we can get more projects done. If we can do the work ourselves, why wouldn’t we?”
Right now, street crews are working on East Erie Street. In coming weeks, they will shift to portions of Second Street, Fourth and 11th avenues, and East Florida Street.
Alley said future plans include improving existing and constructing new sidewalks around all of the schools in Holbrook next winter.
Pat Baca (standing) and Brent Holmes, of the Holbrook Streets Department, prepare Erie Street in Holbrook for resurfacing.
