Daniel Prince
Jan 9, 2023
Town Administrator Michael Tyler updates Jonesville council on weather issues, other projects
At last week’s Jonesville Town Council meeting, Administrator Michael Tyler said the cold weather prior to Christmas was hard on the town’s water system, as there were a tremendous number of frozen and busted water lines that weekend. He said the control lines to the water tank froze, causing the tank to overflow and ice everything over. He said he and another employee worked several hours Christmas Eve installing a control valve at the master meter until the lines thawed. He said the town would work with people on their sewer bills to make sure the town isn’t increasing the burden they have already had.
Tyler said the Forest Street resurfacing has cost the department a good bit of money using outside labor to lower and raise manholes and do other necessary work. He said they have found a leak in the Forest Street area earlier that day, so they will have to dig up a portion of the newly paved road to fix that. He said he plans to use American Rescue Plan Act funds to reimburse costs to the town for that project.
Tyler said he doesn’t have a delivery date yet for the carport the town purchased to store its new trailer and tractors, but he said it should be big enough to also house the mini excavator that council approved, as well. He said the company will call about a week in advance of delivery.
He said the Oakbrook building was ready to go up for sale until some dump trucks tore up the parking lot bringing dirt in for the joint regional sewer project. He said the parking lot needed to be fixed, he had to clean the carpet inside, and install a handrail on the stairwell outside. He said he would get a quote from the company doing the work on Forest Street.
He said the Streetscape project continues to move ahead, as the final prices should be coming in next week so that the project can go out to bid. He said he has met with the Timken Foundation to try and get them to contribute to the project. He said he hopes to get a grant to pay for lampposts, benches, and trash cans. He said he hopes the project can be completely finished in time to decorate for Christmas. Council member Ann Queen noted that the town will need to buy different decorations, as the current ones won’t be compatible with the new lampposts. Tyler noted there are a lot of moving parts involved in this process, including trying to get power lines, telephone lines, and cable lines moved. He noted one issue is that AT&T wants $40,000 to move its line over to the other side of the road. He said the mayor has asked for a meeting with them to try and work something out, because that cost is not feasible for the town to pay, and the line would have to stay if an agreement can’t be reached. He said bids should come in and be approved in March, with an April or May start date to the project.
He said there will be a preconstruction meeting in the next week or so pertaining to the mill site project. The contractors have 60 days to do the work, which puts it at the end of March. He said the Commerce Department asked for 90 days to close out the project, which will put the wrap-up into June.