Andrews moves forward with its revitalization plans
Published on 5/15/2008
By Meredith Carter
mcarter@gtowntimes.com
Phase One of plans to revitalize Main Street in Andrews -- including installing new street lighting and upgrading wiring and traffic signals -- have begun to move forward.
Reese Boyd of Reese Boyd and Associates, a Waccamaw Neck contracting firm, told Town Council at its recent meeting that he has asked Progress Energy, which supplies the town's electrical services, to prepare a proposal for placing electrical service along Main Street underground. The proposal will include replacing and upgrading street lighting along Main Street as part of the Phase One project. Overall, Phase One will involve fixing the intersections at Main Street and Rosemary Avenue and Main Street and Morgan Avenue, the town's two major interchanges.
The lighting proposal to be obtained from Progress Energy will be presented based on Progress Energy installing and owning the street lighting and the Town of Andrews paying a long-term, pre-determined rate per fixture per month.
Final construction plans and documents were to be presented at Thursday's Town Council meeting .
The tentative schedule for completing Phase One project appears as follows: June 1, advertise project; June 15, receive project bids; June 20, present bids to Town Council; July 15, award contract and commence work; and Dec. 1, complete construction.
Funding for the Revitalization Project is available through a $250,000 downtown revitalization grant. The entire project will involve repairing sidewalks and curves along Main Street as well as repaving roads.
Other business
* No official budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2008-2009 was made at a recent budget workshop, according to Town Administrator Chelice Waites.
Right now, Waites said, the town is "in the black." At the last Town Council meeting, the town's accountant, Wanda Charping, said the town was about $2,000 off its expected more than $979,000 income for the 2007-2008 Fiscal Year.
Budgets for Fiscal Year 2008-2009 must be approved by July 1. Otherwise, according to the S.C. Municipal Association, an Andrews resident could challenge the town for unapproved spending.
To prevent such a challenge, Council members can pass a continuing resolution to spend collected tax money or adopt last year's budget.
* Phase Two of the Andrews railroad bed park project, located off Martin Luther King Drive, has been completed.
A $250,000 DOT (S.C. Department of Transportation) grant provided funding for Phases One and Two for the project. Waites said the town will apply for another DOT grant to complete Phase Three, which will include landscaping, installing an irrigation system, creating a gazebo and installing sidewalks.
* According to Marlon Jackson, an engineer with Advent Engineering, Andrews may soon be able to upgrade two outdated sewage pumps. Once the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) grants approval to use the property, the $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) will be used to upgrade the deteriorated pumps.
* Council is seeking to organize a Good Ole' Days celebration, scheduled tentatively to coincide with back-to-school time in August. A committee has been formed, but more input and committee members are needed. The festival, a town tradition, was not held last year. Call Mayor Rodney Giles at 264-8666 for more information.
* The Town of Andrews will finalize repairs and upgrades to John Jay Shaw Park on Jones Avenue the first week of June. The upgrades to the park, located on Pivot Street, will be financed through a $12,500 grant from the Parks and Recreation Department.
* Council adopted the Fair Housing Proclamation by President George W. Bush recognizing the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental and financing of housing and furthers the ideals championed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other heroes of the civil rights movement. April 2008 was Fair Housing Month.
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