Councilor questions South Ninth project

    The Washington City Council talked about the South Ninth Avenue paving project at its meeting Wednesday night. The avenue was opened to the public last week after two months of construction. Councilor Russ Zieglowsky said he is unhappy with the quality of the concrete poured by Jasper Construction. Zieglowsky said the concrete is ?up and down? and ?wavy,? and that he thinks it will get worse over time, not better. 

    ?I drove on it with three different styles of vehicles, and though it is better than it was, I?m disappointed in how the concrete was laid down,? he said. ?I don?t see it smoothing out. We need to get the best bang for our buck, and we?re not getting it there. I think we?re going to see some problems in a few years.?

    Councilor Merlin Hagie recommended to the councilors that they drive the street themselves to see if they?re satisfied with the work.

    Mayor Sandra Johnson reminded the council that Jasper Construction has much more work left to do for the city, namely paving the rest of South Ninth to East Polk Street and portions of Fifth Street in the spring. City Engineer Rob McDonald said the final bill from the contractors would be received no sooner than spring.

    The council voted 5-1 to approve a roughly $290,000 payment to Jasper Construction. Zieglowsky was the only no vote.

    The council voted 6-0 to approve the first reading of an ordinance to require sidewalks in newly developed parcels of land. Under the proposed ordinance, the city council would no longer need to give a specific order to a property owner to force him to install a sidewalk. The property owner would be required to pay the expense of the sidewalk.

    Mayor Johnson asked if this would mean property owners would have to pay for ?sidewalks to nowhere? ? ones that would not lead to a street corner or another sidewalked property. Councilor Karen Wilson-Johnson said that the new ordinance would require them to do that. However, she said such property owners could come before the council to plead their case if they had a special reason the ordinance should not apply.

For the full story, see the Dec. 3 edition of The Washington Evening Journal