County sees spike in asphalt prices

County Commissioners met on Tuesday and approved a change of position titled construction supervisor.

County Engineer Wesley Stolz spoke on the change of title for the position.

“There is currently an engineer one position that we funded in the past year, primarily for the new construction, as well as for grant work projects,” Stolz said. “After assessing the work that’s going to be done, and what the position will be working on for the foreseeable future, I believe that a construction supervisor for the field operations side of things is going to be more advantageous for the county in the long run.”

The commissioners also approved a price increase on an asphalt contract with the county. Hot mix asphalt was originally agreed upon at $60.67 per ton, but due to increasing prices on production, the price has been renegotiated to $75 per ton.

“We’ve been reaching out to other jurisdictions and other competitors, and really I think there’s probably not much of way to get around it,” said Stolz.

With prices going up in all aspects, Stolz doesn’t see a way around it.

“Natural gas has turned and taken a very large increase over the past few months. It’s been a little bit behind crude oil and petroleum, which have gone up. Unfortunately, I do think that this is probably necessary,” said Stolz.

The commissioners also proclaimed this week (May 23-27) as Flood Awareness Week in Texas.