The cool, wet spring of 2008 is keeping Hutchinson area farmers out of the fields and delaying the planting of crops. But Hutchinson city street workers have noticed a couple of things have grown well this spring — potholes and frost boils.

Public Works Manager John Olson told the City Council Tuesday that repairing those problems was threatening to cut into the department’s planned summer seal-coating projects. He estimated repairing frost boils had already eaten $35,000 of the department’s maintenance budget.

“That basically would eliminate our 2008 seal-coating,” he said. “We have just $20,000 (for maintenance) for the rest of the year.”

Mayor Steve Cook’s idea of replacing that money with $35,000 taken from the city’s excess bond fund was approved by the rest of the council. That puts the seal-coating projects back on track.

Read more about city streets in the May 15 Leader.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)