The City’s annual road program will now add two more streets for this year. Due to bids that came well under the city’s targeted projections, the streets of Parkdale Drive and Royalhaven Drive will be added to the list, which, this year, only included Tilby Road.
The road program was recently bid out and the lowest and best bid was awarded to Specialized Construction at the June 6 City Council meeting. According to city officials, “Specialized has performed work for the City for many years and we are glad to have them back to perform this year’s program.” Tilby Road will be rehabilitated from York Road to Ridge Road.
Earlier this year, Mayor Bob Stefanik and Service Director Nick Cinquepalmi conducted their yearly review of the Pavement Management Ranking List, which include viewing the streets first hand. The ranking list rates each of the streets with a score from one to ten. Those with the most need score low. Most of the streets that rated up to four were previously addressed. After discussing proposed budget for street repair this year, the recommendation is then made to City Council for approval. Legislation to go out for bids on the project then takes place.
This year, the streets of Tilby and Edgerton Roads, ranking six and four respectively, were targeted, although only Tilby Road has been placed on the 2017 program for repaving. “ We will be doing a lot of joint repair in the subdivisions this year,” said Stefanik. “If we do this now, we can add ten to twelve years to concrete streets.”
Edgerton Road has been pushed for repaving next year, with some financial assistance. Both projects had been on the request list for Issue 1 funding, but neither project scored enough for that funding. The city applied for county funding through the Cuyahoga County Resurfacing Program for the Edgerton Road project, which spans from Bennett Road to Ridge Road, and recently received word that $250,000 of the $650,000+ project will be paid for by the County. City Engineer, Mark Schmitzer, said that the county scheduled the project for 2019, but the city has decided to actually do the project, targeting the Spring of 2018 and be refunded the $250,000 in 2019. “It’s well worth the wait,” said Stefanik.
According to Stefanik, the city is expected to expend about $1.3 million this year. The yearly road works budget is dependent upon income tax receipts. When receipts are up, the city may have the ability to increase the budget. This year, tax receipts are running a little bit ahead of last year, said Stefanik. “It was a little down in May, but up a little overall, which is good.” He explained that each year, the city pays for the necessities, and pays down their debt. Anything that is left from that is then put toward fixing the roads and infrastructure.
The budget last year was $1.1 million for road replacement for in-house projects. Last year, Prince Charles Development, Lytle Road, a portion of Donmar Road, Creek Run Drive and Rolling Meadow Lane were completed.
According to city officials, “because bids came in extremely under budget, Council has authorized the Mayor to publicly bid rehabilitating Parkdale Drive and Royalhaven Drive immediately. The Engineering Department will be preparing bid documents in the next two weeks.” Road projects usually begin in July or August.

By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer