Councilman says road project in Fillmore on hold

Monday, June 13, 2022
Fillmore Town Hall

FILLMORE – With it being hoped that the project could be completed this summer, repaving Westwood Road and East Street in Fillmore is being postponed until this time next year.

Making no guarantees, Council President Meredith Trusty announced during the Fillmore Town Council’s rescheduled regular meeting Thursday that the project was being put on hold due to “hoops” like grant money and procuring bids now in process.

This comes after Trusty recently consulted with project manager John Ellison of Kieser Consulting Group, which has worked with the town on various potential improvements in the last four years.

“All that process was going to take a long time to get done, but the summer will be gone before we ever get to it,” Trusty said. “I’m thinking it’ll be next summer before we actually get it (the project) done.”

The project involves repaving Westwood Road from North County Road 475 East to Main Street, as well as repaving East Street from North Street to East County Road 100 North. This was approved by the council in January as a modified project, in which Westwood Road was originally set to go to Highland Street. However, this was stipulated as a contingency if the town could not cover the whole stretch.

With expanding the scope of Westwood Road, the project’s overall cost stood at $303,192.50 in January. As such, the local match is $75,798 in terms of the town receiving grant money through the state. Trusty provided that the town has been awarded such funds.

In other business:

• The council approved an agreement between the town and former Bainbridge Clerk-Treasurer Monica Bray with regard to training the town’s new clerk-treasurer Bill Miles on billing, cash updates, customer changes, entries, payroll and claims, among other tasks. Trusty added that she will also assist the town with its budget for 2023.

He said that Penny Nelson, who has assisted in the town office since Jayna Haldeman was clerk-treasurer, had left for personal reasons. Meanwhile, Bray will come in independently at a rate of $60 per hour. Miles took over from Haldeman a few months ago.

Miles and the council have acknowledged his inexperience and need to learn different aspects. This is as they have been pressed by one resident about claims payable not being outlined on the agendas for this and last month’s meetings. Speaking on being transparent otherwise, Trusty said that approved minutes could be posted at the town hall in the future.

“I don’t think you could pay me enough to do it,” Trusty commented. “There are a lot of responsibilities that come with the job.”

• Trusty assured that the town will be getting new water meters soon. These would replace many, if not all, of the town’s current ones, which have become worn-out and are otherwise outdated. As such, this would be part of a wireless reading system.

However, he related that one “hoop” complicated grant funding for the upgrade. Finding this out prior to the meeting, he said that a typo had been found on a document sent to the state. He said this was corrected by Bray, though, and that the funding would go through.

“We could’ve lost all of it (grant money) over a little type error,” Trusty said. “They give you time limits that you have this signed and that signed, and you can actually lose money.”

Councilmen C.J. Huller and Jerry Huff and Town Marshal Darrel Bunten joined Trusty and Miles for the meeting.

The next regular meeting of the Fillmore Town Council is set for Thursday, July 7 at 7 p.m. at the Fillmore Town Hall.

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  • $60/hour to keep the books for tiny Fillmore? I guess I'm in the wrong line of work.

    -- Posted by Ben Dover on Tue, Jun 14, 2022, at 9:00 PM
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