The final phase of Lancaster’s Main Street streetscape beautification series will end at the city limits, as opposed to Great Falls Highway, which had been proposed.
City Council voted unanimously Tuesday on the bounds of the work, which will go from the Emmons Street intersection south to the city limits. The work is projected to cost about $918,000, said City Administrator Helen Sowell.
To carry the work to Great Falls Highway, which is just beyond the city limits, the project would cost $1.1 million – a difference of about $185,000.
A $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) will help the city tremendously in paying for the work. That means the city will have to allocate about $418,000 of its own money, Sowell said.
In a related move, City Council voted 6-1 Tuesday to allow engineering firm W.K. Dickson to provide construction administration and full-time observation of the project for $100,000.
A lesser level of observation would cost $62,000.
“If we’re going to do this, we need to do it right,” Councilwoman Sara Eddins said in voting for the full-time option.
Mayor Joe Shaw, who believes part-time observation would have sufficed, cast the dissenting vote.
The is the last phase of the Main Street Streetscape series, which has seen new sidewalks, curbs, lighting and other enhancements along the city’s Main Street. Officials hope to expand the Streetscape effort to other streets in the future.
Brooklyn Avenue work
City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to award a bid to Insituform Technologies for $254,122. The company will construct a sewer line and eliminate environmental hazards at the old Springs mill site on 15th Street.
The work is part of the second phase of the Brooklyn Avenue Revitalization Project, which is being funded through another $500,000 Community Development Block Grant.
City also voted unanimously to use a soil cap to cover a portion of the city’s property on 15th Street.
“The cap is to cover some environmental concerns identified in a Phase II assessment of the property,” Sowell said.
The $3,100 price tag will be an addition to the $61,700 that had already been allocated for improvement at the 15th Street site.
By Jesef Williams, Staff Reporter with The Lancaster News
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