City street paving program underway

A long-awaited streets paving project is underway in Philadelphia.

“We going to start on Line Street, then go to Range Avenue and Weyerhaeuser Street,” Street Department Director Rex Sable told the Mayor and Board of Aldermen last week. “That is what the plans are but it all depends on the weather.”

In April, the previous board of aldermen approved a $737,771 paving program for city streets. The project will be paid for as part of a $1.2 million bond issue the city approved last year and from $140,000 received over the past year and a half from the Internet Sales Tax rebate.

In other matters, aldermen voted to:

• Approve three road bores for C Spire and another for AT&T;

• Approve a resolution requesting the issuance of state general obligation bonds for improvements for Philadelphia Utilities and related facilities. Mayor James Young said Philadelphia Utilities petitioned local legislators and have received approval on a $1 million grant. The money has to come through the city;

• Approve the purchase of a new bulldozer for the landfill. The board voted to purchase the bulldozer through Caterpillar and financed by Trustmark;

• Approve an interdepartmental transfer, moving an employee from the police dispatch to the municipal clerk’s office. Afterward, aldermen approved for a part-time dispatcher be moved to full-time status;

• Approve the promotion of two police officers from patrolman first class to patrolman second class;

• Approve financing for two police cars that had been approved earlier in the year. The cars will be financed for three years at a 1.56 interest rate. Aldermen also voted to allow Chief Eric Lyons to purchase a new Dodge Charger, using money the city received as an insurance settlement ($24,000) from a totaled police car last year;

• Approve for Fire Chief Pierce Clark to travel to Gulfport for a state Task Force meeting. The city will be reimbursed later;

• Approve the city to apply for a federal Emergency Watershed Protection Grant to stop the erosion in a ditch at Northside Park. Young said this was the same program they used with the Valleyview ditch program before the COVID-19 Pandemic. It is an 85-15 match grant;

• Approve a resolution to apply to the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair program to replace bridges  at Weyerhaeuser Street and on Blount Street; and,

• Approve to pay M&M Manufacturing and Construction $4,974 for work on the Viking Metals building. The money is refundable under the Development Infrastructure Grant Program.