ASHLAND - During Monday's special meeting, Ashland Borough Council determined the area that will be in the 2012 road program.
Earlier, during the July 18 regular meeting, the borough council authorized Borough Manager Thomas Joyce to determine costs and find funding. At that meeting, the discussion centered on a tentative plan to pave Walnut Street from 15th to 18th streets, Walnut Street from 22nd to 24th streets, or some variation.
Joyce said the area from 22nd to 24th streets would need to be paved from curb to curb due to the deterioration of the street, but no milling would be necessary.
However, the street from 15th to 18th streets, if paved from curb to curb, would require milling because of the low sidewalks.
Milling removes a top layer of the old road surface to allow proper stormwater flow without going over the sidewalk.
Joyce said John Davis, the liquid fuels program adviser with the state Department of Transportation, advised that the borough has the option to only pave the driving lanes of the two-way street using state liquid fuels funds and not pave curb-to-curb, which would reduce the costs.
"After meeting with John Davis, he gave us some estimates on the number of blocks on Walnut Street that could be done," Joyce said Monday. "Using the estimates he gave us, we believe we have enough money to do the driving portion only of Walnut Street from 15th Street to 22nd Street."
The new plan would add the 1800 through 2100 blocks that were not originally being considered, but not pave the remaining blocks above until next year.
"We're going to try to get a bid package together in the near future," Joyce said. "We may need another special meeting to get the program going since we're already into August."
Joyce added, "Davis had recommended that basically both areas should be done as soon as possible, and if one area was only done this year, then the other should be done next year as soon as possible."
The council motion approved preparing the bid specifications for this year's road program and to begin early next year to put a bid contract together for 22nd to 25th streets for paving curb-to-curb.