ASHLAND – Bids came in higher than expected for the city of Ashland’s joint street paving project with The Ohio Department of Transportation, prompting concern about the potential cost of the city’s own street paving plans.
The city had budgeted $606,367 as its share of the the $1.3 million project to repave Center Street, East Main Street and Cottage Street. ODOT is paying 80 percent of the project costs.
Because bids came in over budget, the city’s share will increase by about $150,000, Mayor Matt Miller announced at a city council meeting Tuesday.
“That most likely will be coming in the form of some sort of piece of legislation or some formal action in the near future,” Miller told council members.
Though no formal action has been taken by council, Miller said the city administration has already agreed to cover the additional cost.
“Quite honestly, it is what it is, and we’re not going to stop those projects based on that amount,” Miller said.
Miller said city leaders are concerned about what the bids may mean for Ashland’s plans to pave additional streets this summer.
“If this is in fact where the market is headed, we may find that when we get our prices back, we may not be able to do the full number of streets we had already outlined,” he said.
Streets that were expected to be paved this year included Ashwood Court, Buckeye Street, Cleveland Avenue, Jennings Avenue, North Countryside Drive, Prospect Street, Red Oak Drive, Union Street, Upland Drive, West Circle Drive, East Washington Street and Woodhill Drive.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council approved approximately $6.2 million in additional appropriations for 2019.
About $3.7 million of that is the appropriation of revenue from bonds issued to fund the extension of water and sewer lines along U.S. 250 East and the repainting of the “Someplace Special” water tower at Claremont and Mifflin avenues.
About $2.1 million is for grant-funded projects including the Cleveland Avenue bridge repair, the Wells Road extension project, the Center Run Trail project and the facade repair at 16 E. Main Street.
Council members heard a brief presentation from Joe Jakubick of First Energy, who outlined the ways area residents can report street light outages.
Outages can be reported by phone or fax or by visiting www.firstenergycorp.com, choosing “Ohio Edison” under the dropdown menu of electric companies and then selecting “Report Lighting Problem” under the “Outages” tab.
The city of Ashland has also added a “Report A Street light Outage” option under the “Contact” menu on its website, www.ashland-ohio.com.
The council scheduled a public hearing on its tax budget for 7:30 p.m. July 2, during the council’s next regular meeting. The primary purpose of the tax budget, finance director Larry Paxton said, is to set the millage rates so the county auditor knows how much should be collected in property taxes.
The mayor and council members reported a successful inaugural “Let’s Glow Golfing” event last weekend at Brookside Golf Course. More than 300 kids attended, along with many parents, to enjoy a variety of golf-related activities in a glow-in-the-dark environment.
The event was paid for using grants from Samaritan Hospital Foundation and Ashland County Community Foundation as well as private donations set aside for mayors to use the benefit of Ashland’s children, according to Miller.
The city is also planning “The Big Splash,” a pool party for kids ages 4-15. That event will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. July 25 at Brookside Pool.
