Fillmore council approves modified paving project

FILLMORE — Even in anticipating needed road repairs being made within Fillmore, keeping the town’s finances in check remains an overarching concern.

Wanting to get as much accomplished as possible with the funds available meant the Fillmore Town Council making a conditional motion on a piece of an upcoming Community Crossings project Thursday evening.

The council was presented construction estimates for five portions of this project by Dave Kieser of Kieser Consulting Group, who has been working with the town on improving its infrastructure since 2018. However, the project as a whole was amended to focus on two streets in particular.

Westwood Road was originally set to be repaved from North County Road 475 East to Highland Street at a total cost of $186,850. However, the new plan became to take the pavement to Main Street. This meant increasing the cost to $272,798.50. With the 25/75-percent local match, the town’s contribution stands at $68,199.50.

Meanwhile, repaving East Street from North Street to East County Road 100 North has been estimated at $30,394. The town’s local match on this portion stands at $7,598.50.

The portions which were eliminated from the project were repaving Brookside and Highland streets from Westwood Road to the dead end, as well as repaving Center Street from Main Street to East Street.

The total cost of the project before the modifications stood at $273,040. However, with expanding the scope of Westwood Road, the cost now stands at $303,192.50. As such, the local match is $75,798.

Clerk-Treasurer Jayna Haldeman expressed concern that the town would not have the funds to cover its contribution. Taking this into account, the council decided to make and approve a conditional motion to move forward with the project should they be available.

Kieser affirmed that repaving East Street was “a done deal.” Meanwhile, the council agreed on repaving Westwood Road from Main Street to Highland Street instead as a contingency. Besides a reduced cost, this means a little over half of the whole stretch would be repaired.

Regardless of whether part or the entirety of Westwood Drive will be repaved, Kieser said construction would be under way on or sometime before Jan. 28.

In other business:

• Meredith Trusty was nominated and approved to continue serving as the council’s president for 2022.

• The council read and approved Resolution 2022-1, which allowed Haldeman to transfer monies from funds to cover ones in the red from 2021. To a query from Councilman Jerry Huff, Haldeman said the town did not “have many” as such, but explained that some expenses exceeded totals which were initially estimated.

• On a recommendation from Town Attorney Jeff Boggess, the council passed a motion approving the purchase of 30 lift station electrical box locks. Utility Operator Joe Cash said the idea was to have them all match one key, but had no specific price. As such, Boggess made the recommendation to cover the potential cost.

• Town Marshal Darrel Bunten informed the council that he was going to interview local resident Norm Taylor, who was present at the meeting, as a potential police reserve. He stipulated that Taylor would still have to complete a 40-hour pre-basic training, which could be held soon either inside or outside the county.

In approving them, the council also amended the minutes for its regular meeting last month. This was to reflect only a discussion the council had about covenants on properties in the south end of the town. It was suggested that the meeting was incidentally adjourned, and then re-adjourned, when the discussion took place.

Councilman C.J. Huller joined Haldeman, Boggess, Bunten, Cash and the rest of the council for the meeting.

The next regular meeting of the Fillmore Town Council is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Fillmore Town Hall.