Plans 80 percent complete for nursing home Park Street project

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX — The plans for the Park Street project for providing access to the Colfax Health and Rehabilitation Center’s building project are 80 percent complete.

The question now is whether to install curb and gutter and blacktop this fall or to wait until next spring, said Lisa Fleming, a project manager with Ayres Associates, at the Colfax Village Board’s August 27 meeting.

Fleming said she would recommend installing the sewer and water lines this fall and laying down gravel but to leave the curb and gutter and blacktop until next spring.

The sewer and water lines will be necessary so that construction can continue all winter, she said.

Some of the gravel will be lost over the winter when plowing snow, but if the curb and gutter is installed now, it could end up chipped by the snowplows, Fleming said.

“You’ll get a hard road if you let (the gravel) settle all winter,” she said.

Gary Stene, village president, said it was his “two cents” that it would be better to leave the blacktopping and curb and gutter until next year.

Stene also wondered if the blacktop and curb and gutter could be bid out now with the stipulation that the work be completed next spring.

Fleming assured the village board that completing parts of the project next spring could be written into the specifications for the Park Street project.

“It can be bid as one package but to do certain portions in the spring,” she said, adding that it would be more cost effective to pay for one set of plans now for the entire project rather than two sets of plans, one for fall and one for spring.

The street committee is planning to meet September 6 to discuss the Park Street project, said Richard Johnson, village trustee and chair of the street committee.

“We will make suggestions and bring to the full board for approval … we will discuss what to do and how to proceed,” Johnson said.

Fleming hoped that the village board could act on the street committee’s suggestions at the September 10 meeting so that advertising for bids can move forward.

By the time the bids are received and awarded by the village board, blacktop could be a problem because of colder weather, she noted.

Beverly Schauer, village trustee, wondered if the public works committee should meet along with the street committee since the project also will involve sewer and water.

Stene and Johnson agreed that a joint meeting would be a good idea.

The Colfax Village Board’s street committee and the public works committee will hold a joint meeting September 6 at 6 p.m. in the public works building to discuss the Park Street project and to make recommendations.