Clayton's Town Council on Monday approved a bid for the single largest street improvement project in town history.
The council (minus Mayor Jody McLeod, who was absent) unanimously approved awarding a contract of $1.9 million to the Fred Smith Company for Phase 2 of the town's street bonds project to renovate the majority of thoroughfares within town limits. The package is part of the $3 million bond referendum voters approved in 2008.
The $1.9 million project, which will begin this fall, will improve 22 streets, most notably Smith Street, Mial Street, East Front Street, Second Street (between Charles and O'Neil streets), Horne Street and Fayetteville Street.
The initial project cost was budgeted at $2.4 million, but council, following a recommendation from Town Manager Steve Biggs, deferred work on four streets in the Phase 2 project to a separate project to begin next spring.
Biggs recommended that work on East Joyner, Durham, Parrish and Hobbs streets be deferred in order to combine that work with an additional improvement to John Street. Biggs told council that concerns raised by property owners along that street prompted town officials to consider adding the street to the improvement project after it had been left off the initial list of streets to be resurfaced.
The John Street project alone is estimated to cost $530,581. The entire cost, including work on the four deferred streets, is estimated at $1.02 million.
To date, the town has spent $949,000 of the $3 million bond package for work on 20 streets. Add the total cost of Phase 2 and the deferred portion to next spring and the total expenditure for the project is $4.4 million - approximately $186,000 over available revenues.
Though an additional $18,000 was saved through deferral of some work in Phase 1, Biggs requested approval for an appropriation of $168,000 from the 2011-12 fund balance to make up the funding deficit to complete Phase 2 and the deferred spring work.
In response to questions from Councilman Alex Harding and Mayor Pro Tem Michael Grannis, Biggs said that using that amount would reduce the available fund balance to $4,341,798 or 32.3 percent of the total operating budget for the fiscal year. That is within the council's mandated range of a maintained fund balance between 21 and 31 percent of the total operating budget for the year, he noted.
Biggs said he expects to award the $1.02 million for the deferred project work to the Fred Smith Company within the next several weeks.
The bid approval was one of two actions council took during what is normally a work session on the third Monday of the month. Council suspended its rules to approve that bid and a special use permit by Christ Church to use a portion of the Kids-R-Kids daycare facility on Tew Court as a worship center on Sundays.
Clayton Planning Director David DeYoung explained that the church, which had been meeting in Archer Lodge, recently lost its lease agreement there and was looking to relocate for its Sunday services. The congregation will use the large room in the front of the daycare and the facility's parking lot for a worship service, which would not conflict with the normal operation of the daycare since it is not open on Sundays.
Council also approved an agreement with East Wake Television to produce programming for the town's Public, Educational or Government (PEG) access channel (Time Warner Cable Channel 11), using an existing $16,000 annual fund supplied by the state for public broadcasting. Biggs said that although the state funding has been available for some time, the town has "greatly under-utilized" access.
