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Funding for the 2018 Street Repair program — which includes repaving projects for more than 60 streets — has increased 68 percent from the 2016 budget, with the city planning to spend more than $4.4 million this year, according to Hodgson.
Multiple projects will be completed by the end of the year, Public Works Director Doug Spitler said.
Concrete work to repair curbs, catch basins, storm sewers and sidewalks also is underway now, Spitler said, and street work will start soon after because asphalt plants aren’t open yet.
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“If you go down Alex Bell Road and Spring Valley, they are working on concrete right now,” he said. “It will take another month or so before we see any asphalt work. We give the contractors a window of time to get the work done and most of the work is being done on residential streets. But we make sure roads are open for our Americana Festival and Fourth of July events.”
Another project includes a joint effort with Washington Twp. on West Spring Valley Road.
“Our share of the project is about $300,000,” Spitler said. “The township is the lead agency on the project since a majority of the road being worked on is in their area. But if we pave at the same time, then we get better bid prices. We’ve started doing concrete repair on the road in anticipation of resurfacing work being done later this summer.”
The Ohio Department of Transportation is also partnering with Centerville on another major street repair project. The state agency will cover up to 80 percent of a $1 million project to resurface Ohio 48 to the Greene County line.
“We pay 20 percent so our share is $200,000,” Spitler said.
He added that one more project will be completed this year involving phased work on a residential street, Bethel Road.
“We got outside funding from a Community Development Block Grant,” Spitler said. “CDBG gave us $50,000 to help do a major repair involving curb repair, catch basin repair, storm sewer repair and asphalt resurfacing and that entire project cost is about $290,000.”
Two other phases of repairs have been done on Bethel Road, he said, and the city received funding for that work as well.
“We are applying this month for more funding for another phase on that street,” Spitler said. “So we are trying to leverage our local dollars obviously as much as we can with outside funding state or federal.”
But the tax levy that was passed in 2016 has been a huge difference maker in improving the city’s infrastructure, according to Spitler.
“Council wanted to make sure that we were funding our streets adequately and we have absolutely lived up to that commitment as we are putting millions of dollars into the residential street program,” Spitler said. “We make a lot of residents happy when we can fix the infrastructure.”
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