Construction schedule unclear as Timber Days nears
PRIEST RIVER — As Timber Days draws near, it is unclear to city officials if the downtown construction will be far enough along to accommodate the festivities.
“Unless they start working longer hours or bring in more people, that’s not going to happen,“ Mayor Jim Martin said during Monday’s City Council meeting.
The downtown revitalization project, which includes improvements on Main and High streets, was initially supposed to start this month. After Earthworks Northwest was awarded the project bid in April, however, they approached City Council recently with a request to adjust the schedule and start on May 15. As part of the agreement, to accommodate the city’s Timber Days celebration, which includes a car show, parade and other activities, Earthworks is contractually required to have High Street paved, sidewalks poured, and the site secure and ready for festivities by July 25. After Timber Days, which kicks off with the Hot Neon Nights Car Cruise on July 26, work on the project is slated to resume.
“Timber Days weekend, for anybody who has a business in downtown, that is the busiest summer weekend we have,” Martin said.
As a downtown business owner himself, Martin said after observing the construction he is concerned they are behind schedule, and asked that a public meeting be held next Tuesday to give everyone, business owners and the community at large, an idea of where the project is at.
The improvements on Main and High streets include street construction, sidewalks, parking, foliage, lighting and more. City Council members recently included one of the add alternates that was not approved in the initial construction bid as well, though it is not supposed to affect the schedule. The add alternate will complete improvements on Main from Intermountain Dental to Montgomery Street. Also part of the project, city officials are looking into paving the parking lot, which is partially owned by the city, on the north side of the dentist’s office. An agreement to lease the dental office’s portion of the parking lot was on Monday’s agenda, though it was tabled for further information. If approved, the 17 feet of Intermountain Dental property would extend the city’s public parking lot to 55 feet wide, Martin said.
Martin said he did hear from the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council that paving the parking lot is project eligible. The city was awarded $1 million for the downtown construction earlier this year through the Local Strategic Initiatives program, which is administered by LHTAC. The total project funding is $1,965,457, though after engineering, design and construction phase services, available construction funding is $1,622,057. Of that, $198,000 will go to Frontier for underground relocation of the utility lines on High Street, as well as $40,000 for grant administration, which left the city with approximately $1.38 million for construction.
The public meeting regarding the construction schedule will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 9, in Priest River City Hall, 209 High St.
Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee