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Calbert Way, Zinc Mill Road moving ahead
With two city projects meeting their targeted spring construction start-ups recently, they’re ready to roll along now that it’s summer, Mayor Bill Dory told the Greencastle Redevelopment Commission at its June meeting Wednesday evening.
The projects have the same contractor in common with Frank Feutz Construction, Paris, Ill., doing the work on both the Calbert Way extension project and the Zinc Mill Road widening and upgrade.
Feutz, local residents might recall, is the same company that did last year’s work on Indianapolis Road as well as the 2011 Percy Julian Drive project.
“The work on Calbert Way is proceeding quite nicely,” Dory said of the project to extend Calbert Way and city water and sewer lines into the 73.26-acre site for the new community center acquired from the Ballard family.
At its April meeting, the Redevelopment Commission approved a $728,993 bid from Feutz Construction for the Calbert Way work, which will extend the road that provides the main, stoplighted entrance into Walmart to the south.
The extension will not only provide the entrance into the community center site but also give access to a 20-acre parcel south of the Walmart store that is expected to be developed as an industrial site.
Mayor Dory said he has given verbal approval to the contractor on a $13,000 change-order to do more undercutting and add a geo-textile layer in soft spots to reinforce the soil. He noted that with the amount of truck traffic expected to frequent the construction site, a solid road base is necessary.
Meanwhile, the mayor also noted that work is getting started on Zinc Mill Road on an improvement project that runs from State Road 240 to South Street on Greencastle’s southeast side.
That $1.85 million Zinc Mill Road project will widen the two travel lanes, adding curb and gutter and include storm sewer improvements. A sidewalk will be constructed along the west side of the road with a section of People Pathways along the east side.
“The road will be a little wider than it is now,” Mayor Dory has previously noted, “although not by much.”
In other business, Mayor Dory advised the commission -- whose members all attended via Zoom Internet conferencing -- that the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is already being felt locally. The city is already seeing a decrease in gasoline tax dollars received as the public drives less and uses less gasoline with COVID restrictions in place over the past few months.
“That is always a quick turnaround,” Dory said of the gas tax impact.
He also noted that city officials need to be prepared for lesser 2020 income tax receipts due to the number of people laid off and the current 11.3 percent unemployment rate.
“Hopefully we have a good rebound from COVID,” Dory said, “but we’re still likely to be impacted in years to come.”
The brief Redevelopment Commission meeting was conducted by Mayor Dory with members Gary Lemon, Lottie Barcus, Drew Brattain, Gwen Morris and Chairman Erika Gilmore attending via Zoom.
The commission’s next regularly scheduled meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 22 at City Hall.