Decatur City Commission approves sidewalk, drainage repair projects
The Decatur City Commission met on May 16 to discuss establishing budgets for four projects, as well as adopting the tentative millage rate. Photo by Zoe Seiler.
Decatur, GA — The Decatur City Commission, at its May 16, meeting, approved project budgets and contracts for sidewalk repairs at East Ponce de Leon Avenue and Glendale Avenue and drainage repairs at the intersection of Ansley Street and Jefferson Place.
The city commission established a $30,000 project budget and award of a contract to Autaco Development in the amount of $24,200 for sidewalk repairs.
“This is a standalone sidewalk repair located at the intersection of Glendale Avenue and East Ponce de Leon,” Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon said. “It’s replacement of about 130 linear feet of sidewalk along East Ponce de Leon to raise the curb, reduce the surface undulation of the sidewalk and make it a safer walking surface, and also help prevent stormwater from jumping the curb that really doesn’t exist anymore, and flowing onto the property at 130 Glendale Avenue.”
The city has a variety of paving and sidewalk projects underway, which have faced delays due to a shortage of concrete available to the city’s contractors. City staff was not sure when the sidewalk repairs would be completed.
“I know we’ve had delays on the Church Street cycle track because of that,” Saxon said. “We’ve had delays starting the repair and replacement of sidewalks on South Candler. This is a fairly small project, but it’s been a challenge. There’s a shortage of portland cement, which is a necessary ingredient in concrete.”
The board also approved a project budget of $58,000 for drainage repairs at the intersection of Ansley Street and Jefferson Place. The contract was awarded to T&J Industries in the amount of $41,290 to complete the work. The contractor will remove and replace about 100 feet of PVC drainage pipe.
Decatur has had issues with the asphalt on a portion of Jefferson Place near Ansley Street. The city budgeted for a project this year to investigate and repair that asphalt.
“Before we were able to get to that project, we had quite a bit of water coming to the surface right near the intersection,” Assistant City Manager David Junger said. “We actually collaborated with DeKalb County to dig it up and identify the cause of the water. Come to find out, there’s actually an under drain system that was installed underneath that road at some point…that now is clogged between the creek and near the intersection where the water is coming up.”
The purpose of the project is to dig up the drainage system and reinstall a larger pipe. The project will also include patching the asphalt and sidewalk. The contractors are ready to go, assuming they don’t have an issue getting materials, Junger said.
In other business, the city commission tentatively approved the millage rate, which is planned to remain at 13.92 mills.
As of May 13, the city has not received the preliminary real property tax digest from DeKalb County. Lacking that, the proposed fiscal year 2022-2023 budget was developed using an estimated 5% increase in the tax digest, City Manager Andrea Arnold said.
“The proposed budget assumes no overall change in the millage rates; but does make slight adjustments within the millage-rate supported funds,” Arnold wrote in a memo. “The adoption of the tentative millage rates below represents the first step required by Georgia law prior to final adoption of the 2022 millage rates.”
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