MOUNT VERNON — Pickleball, brick streets, and ball fields. And, yes, orange barrels for road work.
City Engineer Brian Ball said the city is revving up for construction.
The city has two projects out for bid: a four-block brick street rebuild on Burgess and Hamtramck streets and the pickleball courts at Riverside Courts.
The brick street rebuild includes new utilities, water, sewer, and stormwater lines, sidewalks and curbs, and relaid brick between Main and Sandusky streets.
Ball said many expressed interest in the pickleball courts project in Riverside Park.
“I know we’ve been talking about this for several decades, but it’s real, it’s coming, it’s happening,” he said.
Administration officials will hold a bid opening for both projects on Thursday, Feb. 26.
A project that will soon go out to bid is the Memorial Park improvement project. Improvements include new concession stands in Phase 1 and rebuilding the softball fields in Phase 2.
Ball said the project has cleared state permitting.
Municipal center, cattle dam, police station, and Liberty Crossing
Ball anticipates receiving final plans for the renovation of the new municipal center at 236 S. Main St. Plans are on schedule for personnel to move into the Central Ohio Technical College building on Friday.
Interested parties met on Tuesday for a preconstruction meeting regarding the Knox Cattle Company dam on Yauger Road.
“We do have everything in place,” Ball said.
Ball said the start date depends on the weather, but an early start is expected sometime in April. A status conference call is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 26.
“We are also working behind the scenes around-the-clock on the police station,” Ball said.
The project is in the construction drawings phase. An all-hands-on-deck team meeting is scheduled for Wednesday to finalize the remaining details before finalizing the plans.
Corna Kokosing is the construction manager at risk (CMR).
Ball said the city has approved water, sewer, and zoning permits for the Liberty Crossing development on Newark Road, and construction has begun.
Route 13 realignment
The city is coordinating with the Department of Housing and Urban Development on building demolition for the State Route 13 realignment project.
A $425,953 federal grant will support demolition; the grant flows through HUD.
Once HUD approves the project, the city can bid the demolition project.
Ball said the contractors will determine the sequence of building demolitions based on schedules, crew availability, and other factors.
However, he noted that for the utility relocation, the power and gas companies would likely need the buildings on South Sandusky Street demolished first.
“The less we prescribe those things, usually the better we get their creativity, their expertise, and better pricing,” he said.
Ball anticipates that the Ohio Department of Transportation will issue a bid for the transportation project in August.
Public utilities
The wastewater treatment plant is moving forward with its design process, with Arcadis and Kokosing Industrial on the EPA-mandated phosphorus-reduction project.
Staff are also working with Arcadis on a water treatment plant upgrade study.
The city will schedule a civil service test for a shift operator position at the wastewater treatment plant, which has opened due to a retirement.
“Over this past cold spell, we have dealt with a lot of frozen lines, frozen meters,” Josh Beltz, public utilities operator, said. “We do have our staff out checking.”
Beltz encouraged residents experiencing a loss of pressure to contact the water billing office (740-393-9504) so that staff can check their meter.
“We have fixed various main-line leaks in the streets, so there are some holes that we are maintaining. When the weather breaks, we’ll get contractors out there to give us a price on getting those patched up,” he said.
Public works
With mild temperatures expected over the next several days, road salt is likelyno longer on anyone’s mind. But in case winter rears its head again, the city will be fine. Its final shipment is in the barn, ready for use.
Street department crews are inspecting, repairing, and adding reflectors to stop signs. With the mild weather, they are repairing potholes.
Parks personnel are replacing pumps and getting Hiawatha Water Park ready for summer. Public buildings and land staff are working at the new municipal center in preparation for the move from City Hall.
“We’ll still need to smooth out operations, networking, printing, phones and all that other business, but we’ll handle that as we go along,” Mayor Matt Starr said.
Kickoff meeting set with Retail Strategies
Starr said a kickoff meeting with Retail Strategies is slated for Friday.
City leaders signed a contract with the company to promote the city to retail and restaurant establishments.
Starr reiterated that city officials do not pick and choose which businesses come to the city.
“It’s my job to make sure that the utilities are there. It is my job to make sure that the zoning is there and the rules are followed,” he said.
“It’s not to decide who is going to purchase or rent the retail space. The market determines that. You determine that with your wallets.”
Investing in employees
Mount Vernon was one of three cities nationwide selected by the National League of Cities (NLC) to be a learning laboratory.
Little Rock, AR, and Seattle, WA, are the other two.
The city applied in early January for the workforce lab.
“It basically focuses on HR employment practices, employee relations, all those kinds of things related to our wonderful city employees and how we can better support them. Especially with our HR department being so new, we thought it was a really good opportunity for the city to apply,” Human Resources Director Elizabeth Turner said.
The city created the HR department approximately 3 ½ years ago.
“We will have several coaching sessions and meetings with a coach from AIR (American Institute of Research) and NLC. They will help us kind of work through our action plan and getting everything set,” Turner explained.
The six-month process concludes in September with a final meeting of representatives from all three cities to discuss what they learned and how they implemented the program.
Starr said the selection “is big news for us.”
He noted the National League of Cities provides up-to-date information and resources for small, rural cities as well as large cities.
“Elizabeth and Sarah [Wisenbarger, HR generalist] have done a lot to modernize the systems and helping us top to bottom in terms of what we need to be doing to meet our mission of providing modern city services,” Starr said.
“While we have all this investment going on in our buildings, we’re going to be investing in our people, too.”
Starr also shared information about the Sustainability Advisory Group he plans to create. The group has no legislative authority. It will advise the administration on ways to enhance community engagement and sustainability now and in the future.