Widening and paving Hennessey’s Main Street north of the U.S. Highway 81/State Highway 51 fourway stop “will take half of our street repair budget,” said Mayor Bert Gritz in a special town trustee meeting last Friday morning.

Gritz made the comment after trustees unanimously accepted a $99,000 verbal construction quote of the Main Street extension that will run about one-eighth of a mile (750 feet) by 24 feet wide. It’s designed to allow easier access for the Howdy Travel Plaza supply trucks.

Paving that extension is a concession by the town with Howdy for locating its 75,000 square-foot plaza inside Hennessey’s town limits.

That way the town will get its 4 percent sales tax on each dollar spent there.

The plaza will include a 6 a.m.-8 p.m. restaurant, fuel stations for autos and trucks, trailers and a trucker’s lounge with showers and laundry facilities.

Jay Ruiz, a Howdy Travel Plaza principal, agreed to change his written quote of five-inch concrete to seven- inch concrete and also agreed to use 5/8-inch rebar.

His written bid called for “steel and structural fiber reinforcement” and was $85,000.

Vice Mayor Clif Vogt and Trustee Harold Shaw said they thought it would be difficult for truckers coming from the north to get onto the paved road unless they changed the angle.

Trustees Richard Shaw, David Jones, and Gritz agreed.

Ruiz said he will also have to get back with ODOT about the changes before they could get started on the project.

Gritz said he needed “a guarantee that the concrete would not be poured during freezing weather.”

Ruiz said he’d had experience with concrete, knew that wouldn’t work and he didn’t want to have to redo it.

Before trustees decided on seven-inch concrete, board members asked about eight-inch concrete.

Ruiz ran the numbers on his phone, and said it would cost $16,000 more.

“That would put it over $100,000,” said Gritz, “and we’d be required (by law) to go out for bids.” Ruiz said, “I’ll stay in your budget,” and absorb added costs, if necessary.

He said he’s anxious to get the plaza up and running and also said he won’t be opening the restaurant this month, as planned.

“It will be the first of the year,” he said.

There were suggestions that he promote it for a New Year’s Day opening, or open at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 1, and he liked those ideas.

Although Howdy LLC made the bid and commitments this month, trustees rejected an asphalt quote at their Nov. 10 meeting. It was $77,136 for 725 feet from Stan’s Asphalt & Construction of Enid.