Eastonville Road – or at least part of it – will soon be paved. The El Paso County Board of County Commissioners voted April 30 to chip seal Eastonville Road to Falcon High School this summer. Commissioner Wayne Williams cast the only no vote.Tim Wolken, the county’s director of public services, said the new high school has generated plenty of additional traffic on Eastonville Road.”We had hoped that this [section of Eastonville Road] would have been curbed, guttered and paved by this point,” Wolken said. “But the economy has somewhat dried up.”Chip sealing should buy the county three to five years for Eastonville Road, until development catches up, he said.According to the El Paso County Web site, chip and seal roads feature a gravel base, topped by a 1-inch layer of fine-grained gravel embedded in tar.The vote was delayed a few weeks to allow time for county staff to talk with Falcon School District 49 staff about the district’s contribution toward the project.Wolken said he and other county officials met with D 49 representatives April 24 and were told that the school district’s capital dollars can’t be used for this particular project because, according to the state statute, the money must be used for school facilities and the surrounding amenities.The D 49 representatives were also reluctant to use money from the district’s general fund. “Like us, they struggle to make ends meet,” Wolken said.In the end, D 49 offered to provide in-kind support services. They agreed to install silt fencing, provide flagging services for traffic control as well as a staging area for equipment and materials. The district will also provide diesel fuel for the project, Wolken said.The county estimates the paving will cost $333,563, which will come from the 2009 Road and Bridge Fund.Wolken estimated the value of D 49’s in-kind contribution at between $10,000 and $12,000.After comparing that amount with the estimated $34,000 that School District 38 contributed for work on Baptist Road in support of a new middle school, Williams said, “I don’t think [D 49’s in-kind contribution] is at the level we’ve asked from other school districts, and so I cannot support the motion.”Williams represents District 1, which encompasses the northwest portion of the county, including Monument and the west side of Black Forest.Commissioner Sallie Clark said paving Eastonville Road to the high school is an important project.”I appreciate the school district working with us in whatever way we can. I do think that in the future, we’ll look at dealing with these things a little differently, but this is a public road and it’s our responsibility to maintain those public roads,” Clark said.Commissioner Amy Lathen, whose district includes the Falcon area, encouraged Wolken to complete the Eastonville Road project this summer.Wolken said the county plans to do the work in June and July so the project can be done before school starts in August.The county will upgrade other roads in Falcon this summer.The resurfacing of McLaughlin Road from Old Meridian Road to Flower Road started April 15 and is expected to finish in mid-May. Businesses on McLaughlin Road remain open and accessible via a detour.Portions of Falcon Highway between Peyton Highway and Curtis Road were resurfaced the week of May 3.According to www.woodmenroadexpressway.com, the work to convert Woodmen Road to a four-lane expressway from Falcon to Powers Boulevard will be finished by the end of May.
