Lindsay council moves forward with road project

LINDSAY — Apia Street between Olive and Mt. Vernon avenues in Lindsay is getting repaired as the council voted to bid out the project during Tuesday’s regular Lindsay City Council meeting. The overlay project is expected to cost an approximate $104,000.

Three street projects all expected to cost less than $130,000 were presented to the council by Mike Camarena, city services director. The city budgeted $500,000 for roads in the current budget and had spent $370,000 of it so far on the Gale Hill project.

Besides Apia Street, overlay was also needed on Honolulu Street and Samoa Street, both from Ashland Avenue to Mt. Vernon Avenue.

After hearing from Camarena, some of the council members were having a hard time making a choice.

“I don’t know how we rank these three. They’re all in the same area. They all need equal amount of work,” said Council member Pam Kimball.

City Manager Rich Wilkinson identified Apia as the number one project.

“It’s probably in the roughest condition out of the three in that budget,” said Wilkinson.
Mayor Padilla asked if there was any way to utilize any remaining monies from the project to do more work in the area.  

“There’s different projects that can be identified with that extra money and we’ll come back to council for approval then,” said Wilkinson.

The Honolulu Street overlay was estimated to cost $106,000 and the Samoa Street overlay, $125,000.

In financial matters the council heard an updated operational budget report, through Jan 15. from Tamara Laken, city finance director.

According to Laken, the general fund for streets, which only includes general maintenance, operations and administration, has spent $97,132 of its $238,513 budget. In addition in the Parks area $74,078 of its $235,965 has been expended. For the McDermont Field House $1,368,520 of its budgeted $2,668,478 was spent. The grant report highlighted 11 grants.

For the water feasibility study $35,000 was awarded and $28,181 remains. In the same token, $35,000 was awarded for the water rate study and $28,352 remains.

Finally, the council heard a report on Well 14 from Camarena. The well has some levels of Dibromochloropropane (DBCP). However, the report from the California Department of Health Services noted that though the levels exceed state maximum contaminant levels the water is safe to drink and an alternate source of water is not needed.

Council member Roseana Sanchez wanted to know if the water was safe to drink.

“You always could drink the water. The difference is, there is a distinct taste and the reaction with soap,” said Wilkinson.

The state requires that the city have a mitigation plan. The city, according to Wilkinson, is applying for state revolving funds and grants for filtration and chlorination of the water to lower the levels.

The budget report is available online at http://www.lindsay.ca.us/.

In other business, the council:

•  Approved a recycling center at 438 S. Mirage Ave. which will be operated by Jose Aldaco. It will take in cans, bottles and plastic.

•  Approved the request by Farmersville to join the Kaweah Basin Memorandum of Understanding.

•  Approved a parking lot renovation located adjacent to the Lindsay-Strathmore Memorial District building. The project is being funded by the Wellness Center USDA Loan and the budget is $348,000.