Eastern Avenue water main project begins

Residents of Eastern Avenue can expect construction on the new water and storm sewer project to begin this week.
At the regular council meeting March 20, the council heard from street superintendent Chris Baird, who stated the project will proceed on Eastern Avenue, starting at the intersection of Summit Street, and go to Forest Avenue, replacing the water main and installing six inch water mains and new hydrants.
Baird said the reason the council was being informed about the project was because after a tentative start date was planned in May, the project was now beginning this week.
“The road was shut to through traffic March 21. March 22-23, crews are going to saw the street and remove concrete on the north end, taking the east side out all the way through, and put in the new water main, which they estimate will take around five weeks,” advised Baird. “When they get the water main done on the east side, they’re going to do services to the west side, by cutting strips rather than doing a total removal. The west side will remain open for local traffic.”
Baird said the main concern he and others had was keeping access to the resident’s driveways.
“They’re saying that most of the time, the residents will be able to reach them, but we’ve also been arranging to have some parking on Birchwood Drive and Forest Avenue. That’s about the only place for people to park, because there are no alleys. It’s probably one of the toughest street areas in town to have totally torn out,” explained Baird.
The project is estimated to require 50 to 60 working days, although Baird said they’re estimating the project will take a total of three months to complete, factoring in rainy days.
“They plan on working from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and very few Saturdays. Also, we’ve worked with them on mailboxes. The contractor will be installing a cluster of mailboxes on each end,” Baird said.
Also, Baird said the contractor will assist with garbage collection.
“If residents put their trash out in their yards by noon, the contractors said they will take the garbage to the ends of the street for collection,” Baird commented.  
Council person Brian Bills said he was pleased that at least part of the roadway would remain open to local traffic.
As for water being shut off during the project, Baird said residents would only be without water for up to an hour as they hook up each service.
 Baird said letters had been distributed to Eastern Avenue residents and they had also gone door to door, telling everyone in person that they could, and would provide further updates as the project went on.
“There will be some frustrations, but it will be well worth it when we’re done. No one likes the bumps, and we’ve had a lot of water main breaks down that street over the years,” stated Baird.
The council also discussed a resolution approving and adopting a revenue purpose statement for the use of revenue from electric and natural gas franchise fees.
Red Oak Mayor Shawnna Silvius said the agreements the city had for electric and natural gas were ordinances and were approved as such, and action needed to be taken.
“Regardless of what we do, because these are expiring, we have to renew the ordinances, which will require a public hearing, and a first, second, and third reading, whether we include franchise fees or not,” Silvius said.
Silvius also stated that she assumed the council would want to have all three potential readings of the ordinance prior to approval. Council person Jeanice Lester said it depended on the public.
“The first and second readings are definite, but if we don’t have huge groups, we could potentially waive the third reading. It depends on the number in the groups,” commented Lester.
Lester praised the changes being made in the revenue purpose statement that was brought up at the prior meeting, and the council approved the resolution approving and adopting the revenue purpose statement for the use of revenue from electric and natural gas franchise fees.
The second item was to set a public hearing on the ordinance establishing a franchise fee on electric and natural gas energy providers operating within the city of Red Oak. The public hearing was proposed for April 17.
“That gives us plenty of time to continue discussing it, but to also get it published as we need to,” stated Silvius. “It also allows us to have further conversations and get input from the citizens. This is the opportunity to get that.”
The council approved setting a public hearing on the ordinance for April 17.
Lester asked for the ordinances to be provided for review at the next council meeting.
Silvius said the ordinances could be approved without percentages, for discussion and approval later.
Lester pushed for discussion on the franchise fees to continue up until the hearing date.
“I think we should keep discussion on the agenda and keep discussing it prior to the public hearing to familiarize ourselves with it even more. People are out there asking,” Lester said.
No further action was taken.