Nye County Chip Seal Program petition deadline nearing

It’s no secret that Pahrump’s roads are in constant need of repair and improvement and with this ever-present situation in mind, Nye County reinstituted its Chip Seal Program in 2020.

The goal of the program is to provide a cost-effective solution for rehabbing roadways that are cracked and crumbling without going through the time-consuming and quite expensive process of total rebuilds.

Residents wishing to see certain roads overlaid with a fresh coat of chip seal have just a couple of weeks left to submit a petition and hopefully have their streets of concern included in the next round of the Nye County Chip Seal Program.

“We are still accepting chip seal petitions for the fiscal year 2021-2022 so we need to get those in,” Nye County Public Works Assistant Director Thomas Bolling told Nye County commissioners and the public during the board’s July 7 meeting. “So far, as of this morning, we have only received one. We’ll try to keep it open until the end of July so that we can give people plenty of time in order to get their chip seal petitions in.”

The process is not very difficult, with the petitions available online and detailed instructions on how to fill out the petitions also provided. Each petition will need to identify a point of contact, in case the county needs to reach out for any reason, and this person will act as a liaison between the county and their co-petitioners. The name of the road which they would like chip sealed needs to be clearly delineated, as well as the intersections at which they believe the chip sealing should start and end.

“In order for the chip seal surface to last, the county likes to start from a road already paved or chip sealed and end on a road already paved or chip sealed,” the instruction sheet notes.

The petition also asks for information regarding the number of homes located on the section of street included in the petition, as well as the number and type of business and and possible school bus routes. The voting district is another piece of information requested, which is then used to identify which commissioner represents the district in which the road is located.

It is important to fill out as much detail as possible to give the petition the best chance of consideration. “Lack of information may cause the petition to not be given full consideration,” the instructions sheet states. “For example, if there are two school buses using that route and nothing placed in the box, the road will be ranked lower than the streets that have one bus.” If attaching an assessor’s map or other map, highlight the roads being petitioned, and including as many signatures as possible for each given petition can also help add force.

The petition asks whether the petitioners are willing to share the costs of half of the road as well and a “yes” answer would obviously make the project more attractive to the county, but shouldering part of the cost is not necessary and petitioners can check the “no” box too.

Once the fiscal year 2021-2022 petition cycle closes, Nye County Public Works staff will conduct a variety of research and review all the petition details in order to prioritize the roads that will be chip sealed in the coming months.

In 2020, the Nye County Chip Seal program addressed 20 roads for approximately 11 miles of chip sealing. The cost of the project was $497,980 with the construction contract awarded to Modesto, California-based American Pavement Systems, Inc.

To obtain a Chip Seal Program petition visit www.NyeCounty.net and click on the “Public Works” link under the “Government” drop-down menu. Then select the “Public Works Documents” link under the “Fast Finds” section and click on “Chip Seal Petition”.

Petitions can be dropped off at the Nye County Public Works Office, 250 N. Highway 160, Suite 2 between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. They can also be emailed to publicworks@co.nye.nv.us

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com