By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The Bucyrus City Council has approved the 2015 Mill and Pave project at its most recent meeting.
Council passed a resolution Tuesday night detailing the streets that will be a part of the project and authorized the Service/Safety Director to advertise for bids for the project, which is not to exceed $653,000.
The areas that are being targeted by the project are:
• Woodlawn Avenue from South Walnut Street to Jones Street;
• East Mansfield Street from East Mary Street to Highland Avenue;
• North Poplar Street from West Mary Street to West Mansfield Street;
• Hill Street from Tiffin Street to Plants Way
• West Mary Street from the Sandusky River bridge to North Poplar Street;
• East Mary Street from North Sandusky Avenue to East Mansfield Street; and
• The alley behind Baker’s Sports Shack.
Should the city come in under budget, sections of Auto Avenue, Penn Avenue, and East Mary Street have also be set aside as alternate projects.
The 2015 Mill and Pave project has a completion date of July 31 in order to coordinate with the ODOT paving of Ohio 98 from the southern corporation line to Charles Street. The city will be saving some money as it works in coordination with ODOT on the state route project.
Service/Safety Director Jeff Wagner announced that residents will be seeing an increase of trains through downtown Bucyrus. He received notice from that the Chicago, Fort Wayne and Eastern Railroad mainline, which runs directly through Bucyrus, had been upgraded. There will be six additional Norfolk and Southern trains running on this line at an increased speed of 40 miles per hour. Wagner encouraged anyone driving through downtown Bucyrus to use extreme caution when crossing those tracks.
Mayor Jeff Reser referred the State of Ohio Auditor’s Office performance audit to the Finance Committee. The performance audit would review departments within the city to find savings. Reser said with key retirements expected and with the addition of the automated water plant, he believed the city could save money in certain areas.
“We want to be in the right size, the right staff for the population. I just think it’s a good time to look at everything,” Reser said. “It was a chance to save us probably millions of dollars.”
The performance audit would take between six and nine months to complete and the cost of the audit could be paid out of the savings recommended to the city. Reser added that the city was not bound by the audit’s recommendations.
Council passed two additional pieces of legislation during the meeting. One ordinance created a materials and supplies line item within the 2015 Victims of Crime Act/Victim Advocate fund while the other ordinance made various appropriations.
Three committee meetings have been scheduled for March 25. The Service Committee will kick off the round of meetings at 8 a.m. followed by the Finance Committee meeting at 8:15. The Health and Safety Committee will meet at 8:45 a.m. All meetings will be held in Council Chambers of Bucyrus City Hall.