Council Accepts Bid To Repave Road

The road that passes by the county convenience center or dump as most people call it is to be paved from Highway 41-A to the city ball park.

At their meeting last week, city councilmen accepted the low bid of $41,350 from Wright Paving Contractors of Fayetteville for the paving job.

The bid calls for putting three inches of material along Ball Park Avenue and to also pave around the park’s concession stand and an adjoining small parking area. The park’s large parking lot is not part of the project.

The paving company will use finer gravel in their mix than normal so when the roadway is completed the surface will have a more finished look, Vice Mayor Ronnie Hill, who is over the park project, said.

"But it will still be base mix," Hill said. "This was their suggestion since the road is fairly new, and they think there may be some more settling."

The city could decide to top the street several years from now to make the surface smoother, he said.

Rutherford County is contributing $8,800 toward the paving project because Ball Park Avenue runs by the county’s convenience center. This will make the city’s portion of the cost $32,550.

Hill said that the city has been saving money to pave the portion of the street that goes to the convenience center for years.

"People have been complaining about the road going to the dump even before the park was ever thought of and we’ve been saving up the money for that," he said.

The city has delayed paving the road until the park was near completion because the large trucks working on the park would damage the surface.

Councilman M.A. Smitty questioned the use of the street aid money on the portion of the paving inside the park.

"The street aid money is good for putting the street down through there, and it suits me to use the money for the parking lot as long as we are going to replace that money because the parking lot is not a street," he said.

"We just need to remember that the money came from the street aid fund, and we have city streets that need repairing," he said.

Hill did not have the figures available on Saturday that would show what portion of the $41,350 bid was for the paving in the park.

Mayor Nolan Barham told Smitty the council would discuss the payment issue at the next council meeting.

The city will take its $32,550 part for the paving costs from approximately $44,350 in savings in the street aid fund. The money for the street aid fund comes from the state gasoline tax. This will take the street aid savings down to about $12,000.

City officials this year are expecting to receive $16,000 in income from the gasoline tax plus $200 in interest income to cover street maintenance needs. The present budget, however, calls for spending $19,600 this year, which is $3,400 more than the city expects to bring in. Any deficit at the end of the year would decrease the street aid savings even more.

The biggest expense in the street aid budget is $11,500 to pay the electricity bill for the street lights, leaving just $8,000 for street work for the year plus $100 for a highway and street permit bond.

The city started paying the street light utility bill out of the street aid money about two or three years ago, Hill said.

"When we (pay for the paving) it will leave about $12,000 in the street aid account and unless something changes, and we keep spending like we have, in a few years that will go away," he said. "We will have to start paying the street lights out of the general fund like we used to."

In other business, city councilmen approved building a $13,500 pavilion at the city park, with the ball club providing $3,000 of the total cost.

The pavilion will be a 30 by 40 feet all metal structure with a concrete slab. It will be built where the smoking area has been located. The $13,500 does not include electricity or lights, which can be added later, Hill said.

Hill also announced a fall festival to raise funds for the park. The date is Oct. 13.

"Everybody plan on coming out and spending money," he said.

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