Lower Burrell adds streets to paving plans

Three streets are being added to Lower Burrell’s paving program this year.

Council approved the paving of Clarendon Avenue, Tioga Street and Prospect Circle, which were not among the streets council approved in July as part of the paving program.

The original streets, located primarily in the city’s Kinloch section, are slated to be seal coated under a contract with Russell Standard Co. at a cost of $235,000.

City officials had anticipated that cost would be more and had allocated $290,000 for the work.

Because of the savings, city officials decided to seek bids for Clarendon with Tioga and Prospect Circle as add-ons, according to City Manager Greg Primm. He said all three, which are asphalt surfaces, are in poor condition.

“Tioga is not in great shape and there was a lot of utility work on Prospect,” he said.

The low bid for Clarendon alone, submitted by El Grande Industries, came in at about $76,000.

In addition, El Grande’s price to pave Tioga is a little over $24,000 and paving Prospect Circle would cost nearly $33,000.

“If you do this you are going to be over budget,” Primm told council.

But, he said, all three streets could be done by taking some money from the city’s Liquid Fuels fund.

Primm said that fund, which contains money from state taxes on gasoline, has $190,000 in it, which would be used for paving next year. He said taking $70,000 from the fund would leave a good cushion to use for paving next year.

He said City Engineer Matt Pitsch thinks paving the three streets together this year is worthwhile.

“Matt thought it was important to do these because the paver is going to be there (for Clarendon), we’ll get a better price,” Primm said.

Council agreed and voted 3-0, with council members Brandy Grieff and Dave Stoltz absent, to pave the three streets.