Street paving contracts and an engineering contract were approved at Monday’s monthly meeting of Franklin City Council.
Council awarded a $209,798 contract to IA Construction Corp., of Franklin, for liquid fuels-funded street paving.
The contract is for milling and paving of the 200 and 900 blocks of Elk Street, Brown Avenue from Atlantic Avenue to Grant Street, and Evergreen Drive from Alder Lane to Gurney Road, with optional work on Madison Street from Washington to Adams streets and Monroe Street from Washington Street to the end.
City Manager Tracy Jamieson said she was “thrilled” with the amount of the bid. “I was not sure what asphalt was going to cost this year, with high costs and everything going up.”
City Finance Director Harmony Motter echoed Jamieson’s sentiments of “relief” about prices for the Community Development Block Grant street improvements contract, which council awarded Monday to IA Construction in the amount of $446,482.
“The budgeted amount was about $20,000 higher,” Motter said.
The street improvements are for 11 street segments that were originally budgeted for fiscal year 2019 and 2020 with CDBG funds, she said.
And council approved a $34,975 contract with engineering firm Whitman, Requardt & Associates, LLP (WRA), of Cranberry, for engineering work for a paving project.
Jamieson said the engineering work is required for the city to receive $324,283 in federal aid route grant funds for street paving of local federal aid routes in Oak Hill and Franklin Heights.
“While it pains me to no end to do this, because it’s a simple milling and paving job, I would not want to throw away $324,000,” she said.
Pedestrian safety
Franklin resident Bev Hart addressed council with pedestrian safety concerns, particularly at the intersections of Liberty and Elk streets with Washington Crossing.
“I speak on behalf of a lot of pedestrians in this town,” Hart said, “and those intersections suck, and you all know that.”
Hart also asked if the city had safety improvement plans for the multimodal trail being put along Allegheny Boulevard, so pedestrians “don’t have to worry about…being hit.”
Jamieson said the problem is the intersections and Allegheny Boulevard are “not our road.” She added the trail project is Venango County’s, rather than the city’s, responsibility and is being done through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
And, she said council had discussed safety improvements at the intersections of Elk and Liberty streets and Washington Crossing, but funding is still needed.
One funding opportunity, Safe Streets For All, would require the city to do another study, “even though we’ve already done a study,” Jamieson said. “We have to do one that caters to that money, but once we’ve done that, we’re hoping it’ll fold right into project implementation.”
She noted it’s difficult to adjust traffic light timing as the city does not have a traffic engineer, but perhaps the city could try to adjust lights at Washington Crossing and Liberty Street to an all-four stop, as Hart requested, “without needing to change the permit, just to see how it works,” Jamieson said.
“Anything’s worth a try,” said Hart, who noted she had asked PennDOT to add rumble strips on Allegheny Boulevard before the Washington Crossing bridge, so “that ball’s in their court now.”
YMCA
Two staff members from the Franklin YMCA gave updates on the YMCA and Miller-Sibley pool.
Ally-Karen Miller, aquatics director at the YMCA, said swimming season at Miller-Sibley pool would run from Friday, June 9, until Saturday, Aug. 19, and passes will go on sale at the YMCA on Monday, May 1.
“We will again have the free swim lessons on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings for the community, and free exercise classes in the water and on land throughout the week,” she said. Her “biggest concern this year is in getting enough staff to work.” She is offering a lifeguard class this month to recruit new staff and will offer another once college staff returns.
Wendy Thompson, group exercise instructor at the YMCA, then spoke to council on the Y’s annual community support campaign, which helps fund YMCA scholarship awards and membership subsidies for qualifying community members who “struggle to make ends meet,” she said.
Council approved a motion to donate $1,200 to the YMCA for the program, with council member Ryan Rudegeair casting the lone “no” vote.
Council member Samuel Lyons was absent from the meeting.
Other business
Hart asked if the city could put up signs or make announcements to try to curb littering during and after parades. “The parades are a great thing for our town; it’s just they leave a mess.”
Deputy Mayor Donna Fletcher observed the street sweepers go out right after parades; “so they try,” she said. She thanked Hart for her “attention to detail.”
Rod and Cinda Richards, residents of the Miller Park section of Franklin, asked council to look into an issue of a neighboring house on the corner of Adelaide and Plumer avenues that had been keeping materials and equipment, such as forklifts and old doors, in the yard for the last two or three years.
Rod Richards said they were “concerned” because the side yard where the equipment is parked is a “mud pit” flowing into storm drains during rain, and added that he believed the family next door had young children who might go into the yard and play around the equipment, constituting a safety issue.
Mayor Doug Baker said the city would look into it.
