Van Buren Council approves signal, road projects
by June 17, 2013 9:16 pm 149 views
School is out, but that does not mean the ride along East Pointer Trail in Van Buren is going to be any easier the remainder of this summer following action taken by the city council on Monday night (June 17).
The council accepted a bid in the amount of $624,951.01 from TNT Incorporated to install traffic signals at the intersection of 16th Street and East Pointer Trail, on the west side of the tennis courts and sports complex adjacent to Van Buren High School.
According to Mayor Bob Freeman, once completed, the project will not only have installed traffic signals, but Pointer Trail will have been resurfaced all the way to 24th Street to the east and 16th Street will be resurfaced north until the street becomes a county road, which is about a mile from the new traffic signal.
Cost for the overlay will total about $200,000 he said, though it could come in for less than that.
Included in the resolution authorizing funding of the project was a financing mechanism.
"We won't finance all of this project. It will just be if we get to the end of the summer and because of cash flow, I don't want to dip into reserves if we don't have to," he said.
The project is scheduled to begin within a few weeks and should be completed within 60 days, coinciding with school traffic for less than a month, Freeman said.
In other business, the council approved an ordinance that would ban the parking of most commercial vehicles in residential areas. A fine for failure to comply with the ordinance will be $250, though Police Chief Kenneth Bell said his officers would issue warnings on first offenses.