During Monday night’s regular meeting, the Marshalltown city council unanimously approved a pair of contracts with the civil engineering firm HR Green Inc. of Des Moines totaling just under $140,000 for design and construction phase services on the 2026 street rehabilitation project and a pavement management study, respectively.

First, Public Works Director Heather Thomas explained the 2026 street rehabilitation project and the contract in the amount of $98,800, noting that it was the result of strategic planning sessions last year.

“These street projects are focused on rehab of streets and not new streets, so city staff have gone around and selected various street segments. We are targeting the street segments that are going to be in all four wards of the community,” she said.

The segments are between one and six blocks, and according to Thomas, they also examined city and private construction projects occurring this year to avoid working on those areas due to heavy truck traffic and equipment. Some of the streets they’re looking at, she said, are “borderline” on whether they can be rehabilitated or need full reconstruction.

Thomas anticipated ordering construction on May 11, awarding a contract on June 8 and starting construction later this summer. As she opened up the floor for questions, Councilor Mark Mitchell wondered why she opted to consult an outside firm after the recent hiring of new city engineer Ben Daleske, and Thomas replied that Daleske’s primary focus right now is the Center Street viaduct, which is saving the city about $200,000 on consulting costs.

“We felt that was the best use of the city’s finances to focus on that project, and he will also be doing several other projects,” she said.

Thomas added that consultants have specialized expertise on streets, and Mitchell then questioned why a local firm like Clapsaddle-Garber Associates (CGA) wasn’t utilized. She proceeded to explain the application, interview and reference check process that led to HR Green being selected for both projects.

Mayor Mike Ladehoff told the audience he will be launching a seven-person steering committee to help prioritize street repair decisions, and Mitchell and Councilor Greg Nichols have already volunteered to serve. During the public comment period, Tim Bradbury asked about a bond to replace water lines and whether that could impact the work being done, and Thomas responded that while she wasn’t aware of the exact bond being referenced, she did know where Marshalltown Water Works (MWW) planned to work on their next water main project and shared the list of targeted streets with MWW leadership.

“There’s nothing known right now — now, obviously there’s unknowns that happen — but right now, these are anticipated not to impact future near-term Marshalltown Water Works projects,” Thomas said.

The vote to approve the first contract was unanimous, and the council then moved on to the pavement management study. After a motion to approve and a second were made, Thomas explained that this study took more of a long-term view than the 2026 Street Rehabilitation Project and said the cost of repairing streets gets higher as the pavement gets older and deteriorates.

“I don’t know a single community in Iowa that has enough money to maintain all of their streets in good condition. So as we work towards improving streets in Marshalltown, we still need to have some projects that are taking some lower cost actions — preventative maintenance, minor rehab, those kind of things — investing smaller amounts to keep good and fair streets in good and fair condition as long as possible to extend that life,” she said.

She clarified that it doesn’t mean streets in poor or very poor condition will see no investment, but the goal is to be as frugal as possible. The crack sealing project the council approved last fall, for example, is slated to begin on Tuesday.

“It is not a Band-Aid. It is a financial decision to try to maintain streets in a less costly manner,” Thomas said.

Some of the other techniques the city will utilize are microsurfacing, thin overlays, fog seals, chip seals, slurry seals, crack and joint sealing, filling and diamond grinding in the lower cost tier. Rehab treatments include cold in-place recycling, concrete or asphalt overlays with milling and resurfacing, rubblization and crack and seat. The highest level of treatment is full reconstruction.

The 2026 project, Thomas said, fits into the rehab treatment category specifically targeting asphalt. She then showed the council the results of the 2018 and 2022 city Pavement Condition Index (PCI) — 2.4 percent of streets are in very poor condition, 13.2 percent are considered very good, 21.6 percent are poor, 40.8 percent are fair and 22.1 percent are good. They will be analyzed again in 2026 with the results shared late in 2027.

The data is publicly available at https://data.iowadot.gov/datasets/IowaDOT::pavement/explore, and Thomas reiterated that streets are “very, very expensive” as she referenced the budget discussions and asked for council direction on how much could be realistically funded while putting together a plan for 2027 to 2031.

She called for direction on specific streets that will be targeted early on and clarified that Ladehoff’s steering committee would be focused on the pavement management project as the targets for the 2026 Street Rehabilitation have already been identified. The council then unanimously approved the contract not to exceed $40,000 with HR Green Inc.

In other business, the council:

• Approved retail alcohol licenses for the Marshalltown Speedway, the Hampton Inn at 20 Iowa Ave. W. and Iowa Clouds Liquor and Tobacco. Also approved a new retail tobacco and device retailer permit for Iowa Clouds.

• Approved the consent agenda as listed.

• Approved the second reading of the ordinance amendment repealing and replacing Chapter 90 on animals by a 6-1 vote with Mitchell opposed.

• Approved the first reading of an amendment to Chapter 156 regarding accessory structure locations and zoning definitions by a 6-1 vote with Councilor Marco Yepez-Gomez opposed.

• Approved the first reading of an amendment to the municipal code adopting the 2021 international residential code for radon control methods.

• Approved the first reading of an amendment to Chapter 93 of the city code regarding camping, time limits, permit and fees.

• Honored Austin White for five years of service to the Marshalltown Fire Department, Kristin Titus for 10 years of service to the Parks and Recreation Department, and Chad Hillers (20 years), Kraig Lageschulte (20 years) and Chief Chris Jones (30 years) for years of service to the Marshalltown Police Department.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.