Neighbors Helping Neighbors -
Navasota shares successful recycling program with Teague
By Jeff Hawk
 Who
says road building can't be downright neighborly? City of Navasota
officials traveled to Teague in mid-September to advise city officials
on a road rehabilitation process that is helping them transform
their small Texas town. The process is full-depth recycling with
cement, which involves pulverizing the existing road surface and
base and then adding cement to form a new bonded base.
No booming metropolis itself, Teague (population 3,268), was trying
to figure out how to rebuild its aging road system with a slim-to-none
budget. Enter Navasota.
"If
there's a way we can help somebody, we're going to do it,"
says Gary Johnson, Navasota's public works director. "We know
what they're facing." Navasota is currently winding up a successful
four-year effort to upgrade its road. Like Teague, it started with
little money and few resources. Still, Navasota officials found
recycling to be so cost effective and simple, they've managed to
quickly convert their rutted roadways to sturdy streets.
 Now,
it's Teague's turn. Jeff Looney, Teague's city manager, boned up
on the recycling process for a year and visited Navasota to review
their program. Ron Akin, Navasota's street superintendent and a
veteran blade operator, volunteered to visit Teague and consult
Looney on the process.
"He's
a great guy," says Looney of Akin. "He was a mentor. He
really took me under his wing and showed me the ropes."
Bill
Morgan, a project manager for Young Contractors Inc., Waco, also
shared his extensive field knowledge of the process with Looney.
Young Contractors has performed several recycling projects for the
City of Waco and the Texas Department of Transportation.
 After
some minimal training, Looney and his crew managed to recycle nearly
2 miles of city streets. In a small town that translates to four
neighborhoods positively affected, says Looney. And since one of
the recycled roads runs in front of an elementary school, "the
entire school district was affected," he adds.
Though
the city allotted about $100,000 for the project, Looney says he
believes the final costs will be tens of thousands of dollars less.
He has already budget $150,000 for 2003 and hopes to continue upgrading
roads with cement every year until there are no more.
It
just makes sense, says Looney. "Why keep socking $25,000 into
cold mix (for pothole repair), when you can apply that money into
the roads," says Looney. Not only did the program give his
street crew a sense of purpose and bring them together as a team,
says Looney, it also brought the community together. Says Looney:
"I keep getting positive reinforcement for what we've done.
The community deserves to have good roads."
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