Earle to spend $50,000 to finish paving projects

Earle to spend $50,000 to finish paving projects

Extra funding will cover roads not on state- approved list

news@theeveningtimes.com

Earle will spend an extra $50,000 to pave all of the roads on its list that state street aid repair money won’t cover.

The city submitted a list of street repairs that came to $301,850, but was only approved for $250,000 by the state.

City Council approved making up the $51,850 difference from its street fund to get all of them resurfaced rather than take some off the list.

“We do have money in the street fund to cover this excess amount,” Mayor Sherman Smith said.

Smith said he and Councilman Robert Malone drove the city’s streets and compiled a list of streets that needed attention. State road department engineers measured the roadways, graded their condition, and assigned a dollar figure for each one.

The list includes:

• South Street .20 miles $27,780

• Rollins Street .15 miles $21,180

• Cartwright Street .25 miles $32,220

• Park Street .15 miles $25,480

• Draper Street .15 miles $18,560

• 4th Street .17 miles $23,560

• Oak Street .25 miles $41,800

• Arkansas Street .53 miles $83,520

• Whitman Street .15 miles $27,760 All of the streets were graded as fair to poor condition.

Smith said the total comes up to a little over two miles.

The state will come in and lay down a two inch asphalt overlay.

The money comes from the Street Aid Program which provides funding and engineering assistance to cities and counties to help resurface roads. The program is funded by a one cent sales tax.

Earle last received $250,000 in funding in 2014 and repaved parts of Alabama, Main, 3rd, 5th, and 6th Streets.

“It’s an overage of $51,850,” Smith said. “We can either go ahead and or cut some streets out and get it down to $250,000. It’s up to the council how we go forward.”

Councilman Kenneth Cross made a motion to spend the additional $51,000 to cover the entire list of streets.

“I would like to see us do them all since we have the money,” Cross said.

Councilwoman Jimmie Barham asked Smith when the work will begin.

“Will that be in 2019?”

Barham asked.

“It will probably be at the end of 2018 or 2019,” Smith said.

Barham said she would like to see the city do some patchwork in the meantime. “I’m glad we can do all that,” Barham said. “But would there be some

money where we can get a load and go and patch it some? We really need to do some patching.” Smith agreed and said the

city does have plans to fill some potholes.

“We can do some,” Smith said. “We are going to do that too.”

By Mark Randall