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Story Archives: Big construction year ahead for Winnsboro
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Big construction year ahead for Winnsboro
With 2008 drawing to a close, Winnsboro city council members--and some city employees--are looking forward to a banner construction year which will start in early spring.
Using a mix of state, federal and local funding sources, the city will start on five different projects which will change the look and feel in Winnsboro by the end of next year.
The most apparent will be a street overlay project.
The city council learned at its December meeting that as soon as the Louisiana Community Development Block Grant (LCDBG) grants permission to advertise bids, the street improvement program will begin.
This $1.2 million project--which is sure to change the "feel" of driving on city streets--is a combination of local and state financing. The city put up half of the amount as matching for another half of LCDBG grant funds and taxpayers provided the seed money by passing a 10-year, 1/2 cent sales tax dedicated to street work.
While streets will be addressed according to a prioritized list beginning with the worst, the proceeds from the sales tax will, in effect, serve as financing for a 10-year street maintenance program.
The street overlay project will last about four months, once it begins.
More than $600,000 in state and federal funds will be used to complete a city community center and parking lot in the downtown area.
Funds from a combination of four approved state capital outlay projects and U. S. Department of Agriculture funding will pay for renovating a former McLemore grocery store on Adams Street. The building will have a kitchen, meeting rooms, rest rooms, storage and offices for community functions.
A parking area across the street, between Adams and Prairie and Cornell and Landis, will be reconfigured into a landscaped parking area. Plans call for drainage systems, and aesthetic landscaping, including small trees.
Currently the parking area is rough surfaced and is an important location in Catfish Festival activities.
The spring construction plans are flexible enough to avoid conflict with the April festival this coming year.
A smaller construction plan includes the installation of a length of sidewalk, five-feet wide, along Havard Street from Front to Polk Streets at a cost of about $300,000, with the Louisiana Department of Transportation providing 95 percent of the money and the city only five percent.
The smallest project will be the relocation of three-inch diameter water lines to the sides of Jackson and Maple Streets at a cost of under $60,000. Funds for this work use what is left from a $7 million project to import water into the city several years ago.
A longer term project, relocation of the airport, waits on a formal agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration that the project is necessary. Once the formality is completed, the city can begin looking for an appropriate site.
Airport relocation has been estimated as a 10-year project. |
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