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Council committees consider higher budgets for park restroom, courts; signal upgrades and bridge rehabilitation planned
Summary
Committee meetings on Jan. 13 covered requests to increase authorized expenditures for a West State Street park restroom and tennis/pickleball courts, a proposed East State Street signal upgrade funded partly by ODOT, and major rehabilitation work on the Stimpson Avenue bridge plus maintenance for Richland Avenue and Strouds Run bridges.
Committee members reviewed several city infrastructure items on Jan. 13 that would increase project budgets or begin multi-year construction work.
West State Street park restroom: The City and Safety Services Committee discussed an amendment to ordinance 15-22 to increase the authorized expenditure for a prefabricated West State Street ballfields restroom facility to $300,000. City staff and the mayor said repeated bidding produced either very high bids or no bids for a site-built restroom and that a prefabricated unit is a cost-effective alternative; the administration said installation will likely occur in summer 2025 and probably not before the Sandlot season begins.
Tennis and pickleball courts: The committee reviewed an amendment to ordinance 56-22 to increase authorized expenditures for resurfacing and corrective repairs to the tennis and pickleball courts to $350,000. Staff explained that a batch of asphalt used on the courts had high iron content, resulting in “bleeding” through the painted court surface and early surface failures; the additional funding would address corrective action on top of the existing $329,000 project.
East State Street signal improvements: The Transportation Committee discussed an ODOT Small Cities Congestion Mitigation grant for roughly $859,316 and an expanded project scope that adds an uninterruptible power supply and a video-based vehicle detection system for the East State Street corridor. The administration proposed additional local funding—$230,000 from TIF and another contribution from the street fund—to authorize total spending up to $879,658 for the full upgrade. The mayor said the new cameras and detection will allow the signal system to learn time-of-day and seasonal traffic patterns and could improve vehicle flow and reduce idling.
Stimpson Avenue bridge and related bridge work: The Transportation Committee reviewed a full rehabilitation of the Stimpson Avenue bridge, including deck and parapet replacement, beam rehabilitation and painting, abutment repair, decorative and under-deck lighting, and a separated shared-use path on the upstream side. The ordinance would appropriate $4,470,590 into fund 589, with a city local-share appropriation and total authorized expenditure for design, construction and construction engineering around $5.3 million. Committee members asked about maintaining traffic during construction and were told traffic flow would be preserved using phasing and signalization strategies where feasible.
Richland Avenue and Strouds Run bridges: Designers are working on maintenance and repainting of parapets for the Richland Avenue bridge and the Strouds Run bridge over U.S. 33; proposals include anti-vandal fencing, repainting and installation of a City of Athens sign to deter tagging. The committee noted coordination needs with Athens County for the U.S. 33 overpass but said bundled work could reduce costs.
Committee members asked about rebidding, contractor specifications (for example, asphalt iron content requirements), and outreach to local contractors who might participate in repairs. Council member Swank asked administration to check whether bid specifications included limits on iron content and whether contractors could be asked to share remediation costs.
