ASHLAND — Ashland City Council is seeking contractors — again — to resurface Claremont Avenue.
This time, however, the city has created a larger budget in hopes of attracting competitive bids and to cover more work along the crumbling road.
The project’s new estimate amounts to $5.4 million, according to the ordinance that allows officials to advertise for bids. The original estimate, established in March, was $3.6 million.
Initially, the plan was to complete the whole project by the end of this month, which included repaving the four-lane road from Baney to Smith Road. In May, the city received one bid for that project — but it came in $1 million over the estimated $3.6 million.
State law dictates governmental entities must accept bids that are no more than 10% over the entity’s original estimate.
City officials managed to convince Kokosing Construction to repave “the worst sections” of Claremont Avenue as part of the company’s contract signed last year in 2021.
But the rest of the project, including foundational repairs, replacing curbs, addressing drainage issues like catch basins, and installing sidewalks in some sections, would have to wait until possibly spring of 2023.
Ashland Mayor Matt Miller said the reason for the project’s significant increase has to do with attracting competitive bids for the work and additions. The largest addition is replacing the water line that runs underneath Claremont Avenue between Baney and Smith roads.
“If we’re going to go through with all of this reconstruction work, that is a cast iron pipe, one of the old cast iron water lines, running under Claremont Avenue,” Miller said, noting officials think the pipe is more than 75 years old.
A lot of the project’s cost will be covered by state grants. The city received a $2 million grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation in 2020. Another $400,000 is coming from a grant program at the Ohio Public Works Commission.
But that still leaves around $3 million that local taxpayers will need to cover.
Officials hope the project does not cost that much. Finance director Larry Paxton is optimistic the city’s share of the project can be covered with either untouched permissive tax revenue to the tune of $600,000, or a combination of that and federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
The city has not allocated any of its $2.1 million ARPA share, Paxton has said.
When Councilman Steve Workman asked Paxton if he was comfortable with a “potential $3 million” gap for the job, the finance director acknowledged the magnitude of the project.
“It’s a big project. There’s no doubt about that,” Paxton said. “We’ll certainly work together when looking at that funding.”
