City alderman okay street seal coat plan

The Clarendon Board of Aldermen approved a plan to seal coat more than 30 blocks of city streets during a called meeting last Tuesday.

Engineer Gene Barber said he thinks the project will cost $160,000. City officials will meet with a financial consultant Thursday to discuss options for paying for the seal coating.

Aldermen have been discussing large scale paving project for several months, and the plan approved last week, which repairs and resurfaces several existing paved streets, is considered by the board as Phase I of a paving program.

“Money is cheap right now,” said Mayor Tex Selvidge, referring to low interest rates. “If we’re going to do something, now is the time to do it.”

Streets in Phase I include Collinson from Eighth to Clarendon Avenue, Third Street from Allen to Bugbee Avenue, Fourth Street from Koogle to Jefferson, Sixth Street from Jefferson to Goodnight, Seventh Street from Bond to Kearney, Jefferson between Seventh and Sixth, and Kearney from Wood Avenue to Sixth Street. Each of those areas will receive a double layer of seal coat.

Additionally, Cottage Street between Seventh and Fifth will receive a single layer of seal coat.

Bids for the project will be opened August 23 during a called board meeting. No time line has been given for the completion of the seal coating.

A separate paving project will also be taking place in the southeast part of town.

Under an emergency grant from the state Office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA), 14 blocks of city streets will be paved at almost no cost to the city.

Engineer Che Shadle said half the ORCA project would hot mix construction and the other half would be hot mix with curb and gutter.

Six blocks of Thurman Avenue, located on the east city limit, will be paved with hot mix. Extensive work will be done on that road to address drainage problems in that area of town.

Paving with curbs and gutters will be done on the following streets: Wood Avenue from McClelland to Faker, McClelland from Montgomery to the alley between Fourth and Fifth streets, and Hawley Street from Barcus to Fourth.

The ORCA project dovetails with another project being funded by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the US Department of Agriculture. Both projects were funded as a result of damaging floods in the spring of 2001.

The ORCA project will cost an estimated $300,000 with the city only incurring the cost of auditing. The ORCA work should be completed in the spring of 2003.