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Andrews Town Council looking to obtain more repaving money

The Andrews Town Council looked ahead to obtaining more state funding to repave streets in town during its meeting on Monday, June 12.

Council President Bill Johnson said that he anticipated the state would start approving street projects in August. Currently, the board is debating how much funding it wants to chip in for the next round of repaving. The state’s funding formula for such projects has transitioned from a 50/50 match to a 75/25 match, with municipalities only having to foot the bill for a quarter of a project.

“This is a great opportunity for towns like Andrews to be able to improve the quality of the roads in their community at a bargain-basement price,” said Johnson. “And we plan on taking advantage of all that as best we can.”

Several streets that were nixed from the first phase of repaving in town will not be addressed in the next one, council said. Those streets will be left out, the board explained, as there is a high probability they will be dug into at some point in the next few years so water pipes can be worked on. Streets to be addressed will be ones that were scored low by consulting firm Jones Petrie Rafinski (JPR), which assessed every street in town and assigned scores of 1 to 10, with lower scored streets being in the poorest condition.

Jay Stankiewicz, JPR senior project engineer, attended the meeting and council approved an amended general services agreement with his firm.

In other business:

• Utility Superintendent Colin Bullock will upgrade benches at the Andrews Town Park, at the request of park volunteer Rick Wright. Wright also expressed interest in unearthing an overgrown sidewalk near the park.

• Town Marshal Austin Bullock informed council that the hard drive on his computer had failed. While the department’s logs were backed up, Bullock noted that several forms he created would have to be remade from scratch.

• Clerk-Treasurer Laura Dillon stated that she would bring budget forms and information about fund surpluses to council’s next meeting on June 26.