City Council discusses cost of street renovations
City Council discusses cost of street renovations
By MARVIN BAKER
EDITOR
City engineer Steve Ike met with the New Town City Council last Wednesday to discuss upgrades on First Street North and First Street South as well as possible upgrades on Park Place, Central Avenue and Soo Place.
The First Street North project is estimated at more than $91,000, while the First Street South project is estimated at nearly $88,000. Milling, overlaying and patching in select spots are considered the needs for First Street.
Park Place, according to Ike, will need mill and overlay and seal coat at a cost of about $13,000. He didn’t speficy a seal coating cost for Central Avenue but added a total reconstruction of Soo Place could cost up to $94,300, and he recommended total reconstruction because of the shape that city street is in and how much it gets used.
Altogether, Ike told the council that if it wants to get all the above named streets repaired or rebuilt this coming construction season, the cost, including administrative fees, would be $405,000.
“If we wanted to do a little less on Soo Place, we could reduce it to $336,000,” Ike said. “It would be less quality, but we could save some money.”
Mayor Dan Uran was concerned about Ike’s figures primarily because of what it would cost New Town taxpayers. He reminded Ike and the council that another major project, reconstruction of Main Street, is coming up in a couple of years.
“We’ve got to think about how we’re going to pay for this if we’re looking at a $1.2 million cost in 2012,” Uran said. “Business owners have said specials have hit them hard downtown. That’s why we want to save as much as we can.”
However, Uran added he thinks it’s in the best interest of the city to make repairs this summer, especially on First Street North and First Street South.
