Alterations to street resurfacing were approved in last week’s city commission meeting, as were new renovations for Fire Station Two.
Several new streets have been approved to be paved after commissioners had to rework some street resurfacing funds.
The 2019 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Streets Resurfacing Project originally included improvements to West Alsobrook Street between Waller and South Tyler streets However, the improvements were “deferred due to limited right-of-way and other prohibitive issues at the 30% design stage,” according to the city.
To make sure those grant funds were being put to good use, the city came up with an alternate project that would hit a handful of other local streets. Commissioners were asked to authorize City Manager Bill McDaniel to execute a contract with Hubbard Construction Company, in the amount of $138,297.74, for the CDBG Streets Resurfacing Project.
The $138,297.74 would be used to mill and resurface East Young Street, North Center Street, North Wills Street, Powell Street, Ramsey Street, Ray Street and Frances Avenue. The Procurement Division published an Invitation for Bid and four companies responded on March 4. Hubbard Construction Company was determined to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.
McDaniel said that the city was working on the CDBG Streets Resurfacing Project in mid-2020 and once the pandemic hit — along with all the issues related to the original street — they decided it would be faster and more beneficial to put West Alsobrook Street on pause to focus on getting a new set of streets milled and paved.
“One thing I don’t want to do is lose the funding because of delays in the project,” McDaniel said. “This should be a quick turnaround once they get going. They are residential streets and relatively simple in the grand scheme of things. However, I think that it’s going to make a big impact on our residents who live along those streets. These are locations we’ve had our eye on for a while now and I’m excited to see them get repaved so quickly.”
The seven streets total 1.11 miles of roadway.
Commissioners also adjusted the budget last week to approve some renovations at Fire Station Two. The Capital Improvement Budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year and the next four years was tweaked to add funding to the reno project, which will be used at Fire Station Two to replace the two front overhead doors and install new signage.
The city is funding the project by moving $42,713 from a closed Replace EMS Equipment project into the Fire Station Two Renovation project. In 2019, the budget allocated approximately $400,000 to renovate and upgrade the station and commissioners agreed in 2020 to authorize the City Manager to execute a contract with D-Mar General Contracting & Development, LLC for $328,588 to put everything into motion.
Fire Station Two has been undergoing renovations for the past several years. It was approved to get a new roof in 2018 as it was still using the original roof from 1990. Small renovations had been done over the years but nothing major was tackled until last year. In 2020, commissioners agreed to focus on renovating the 5,100 square feet of living space in the station including its kitchen, bathrooms, offices, dayroom, dorms, fitness area and apparatus bay.
The latest approval is just one more step toward renovating the entire building, which houses approximately a third of PCPD’s firefighting force.
