By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
The Grayson Utilities Commission held their regularly scheduled meeting last Friday (October 31), and though their recently completed waterline project was still the main topic of discussion, the commission is also looking toward what’s next.
Utilities director Gerald Haney reported that most of the items left on the “punch list” from the previous water project had been completed. Haney said any remaining items were small things, such as placing valve collars and strawing around certain repairs. As promised, all the asphalt concerns had been checked off the list, Haney told the commission.
“They paved Fourth Street first, then went down a block to Pomeroy and did part of Third Street. This week they did Second Street all the way from Carol Malone to West Second past the courthouse,” Haney said. “They have also done Third Street from Carol Malone to Landsdowne.”
Haney told the commission that time had been lost due to rain (two days), but that College Drive should be finished later that same day.
“So, (the first week of November), if the weather stays good, they should finish all of Landsdowne,” Haney added. “And that will put them on the city streets that aren’t’ part of the water project.“
The additional paving, he said, included speed bumps on Court Street that residents had petitioned the city to install, and paving on Womack.
“The city has some additional paving to do as well on the east side of Carol Malone,” Haney said. “And once that gets done they may get to our patching. The big streets, the ones everyone drives on, will be finished in November.”
He also pointed out that the paving being done was a full two inches, post rolled. Opell Excavating has not yet turned in the final retainage for the water project, but is expected to do so this month.
The water project has had secondary and tertiary benefits, Haney said, as the work done on water supply also allowed the commission to make repairs and some updates to the city sewer that would have been much more expensive later if the roadway had needed to be dug up again. Grayson Mayor Troy Combs added that there were roads being paved now that most likely would not have been paved if not for the water project.
Two roads that saw major improvements that might not have been done without the project were College Drive and Landsdowne, Haney said. Those roads saw improvements that were facilitated by the project, and might have been delayed had it not happened. The City of Grayson, the utilities commission, and Carter County have all been involved in paving projects that complement one another, he said.
Haney also submitted engineering invoices for the months of August and September from Bell Engineering to the commission for approval, in the total amount of $17,132.13. The commission voted to pay the invoices.
The commission also discussed the upcoming water project near East Carter High School. The contractor that had submitted what was thought to be the low bid on the project discovered a math error in that bid; after recalculation that bid became the highest bid submitted. This change in figures moved the bid submitted by Opell Excavating to the lowest bid slot. Based upon the recalculation, the commission voted to approve the bid by Opell Excavating.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
