Construction starts soon
on Spencerport village street project

By mid-April, Village of Spencerport residents on Coleman, Coolidge and Barrett avenues will be seeing the beginning of more than four months of road construction. The end result, Mayor Ted Walker said, will be more than worth the inconvenience.

Walker said about 30 people came to a recent information meeting to hear the hows and whys of the $1.4 million re-construction project.

"The project engineer came in and described the plan and told residents why we need to rebuild the streets," Walker said. "The greater part of the discussion centered around the spirit of cooperation that's going to be needed to help make the project go smoothly."

That spirit of cooperation will be needed, Walker said, when it comes time for curb replacement. When the replacement is occurring, residents will be unable to access their driveways for about three days.

"We've asked neighbors to help neighbors and perhaps let them utilize their driveways during that time," Walker said.

It's anticipated that road crews will begin work in mid-April and be done by the end of August or middle of September. Walker said crews will likely be working from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The road construction is necessary, Walker said, because not only is the blacktop in "bad shape" but the base of stone underneath is full of water and is not draining properly.

"The old blacktop needs to be milled off and new stone put in before more blacktop is laid," he said.

The village plans to host more information meetings as the project gets underway and also is planning for a "Street 101" program where residents can learn how a street is built from start to finish.

The village is paying for part of the project with $220,000 it received from the Monroe County Water Authority because the village is replacing the last section of old water main. Other funds are coming from reserve while the remainder will be from taxpayer dollars, Walker said.

This project is part of the 30-year global plan on road work and maintenance the village has put together.

While the village does already do routine maintenance and repair of its streets, this project looks at maintaining and improving streets under a quantified program which officials believe will improve the village's overall network and in the long run will cost less money in maintenance.

Under this program, the village will be able to maintain its streets at a high level for less money, but to get to that point it will have to spend a bit of money up front. The up front money could range anywhere from $4 to $7 million over a five to 10 year period. The village collects $300,000 from property tax revenues for the general fund - not a large amount compared to the work that is done in the village on an annual basis. They also receive about $28,000 from the state's Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPs) program.

"Repair and replacement will continue throughout the village under the schedule we've set forth," he said. "Information meetings will be hosted to update residents and I also urge anyone with questions, to call the office."