The city of Rincon will soon resurface some city streets with the help of the Local Assistance Road Program.

At a special called meeting last week, interim City Manager David Schofield presented the council with a list of streets that public works director Tim Bowles noted as needing repaving.

After some discussion the council agreed on nine streets, which will be paved from SPLOST funds at LARP contract prices of $149,370. In addition, LARP will pay for 15th Street and Weisenbaker Road to be resurfaced.

Councilman Lamar Crosby had originally mentioned Fort Howard Road as a top contender for resurfacing at the July 23 city council meeting where repaving of Ackerman Road was approved. Last Thursday, he had changed his mind and instead suggested that the repaving be put on hold because of all the plans circling around for Fort Howard Road.

It may be reconfigured into four lanes and the new Rincon United Methodist Church has plans for deceleration lanes on the busy road.

Crosby felt it was more sensible to hold off on repaving until all the major changes to the road have been made.

Other streets on the list prepared by Bowles were not as clear-cut to the council.

Crosby questioned whether short streets, which only serve a few people, should be paved.

“I raise that as a point of discussion,” he said.

Councilman Reese Browher, however, noted that those few people who use the streets value the resurfacing.

The LARP program only resurfaces roads that are already paved. They usually do not pave whole streets, but rather parts of streets.

“They do a little bit here and there,” Schofield said.

Last year the city did not pave any roads, despite having the funds. Mayor Ken Lee explained the council was trying to prioritize everything in 2006 and water issues required most of their attention.

With water issues having been worked out to a great degree, the city can redirect its attention, according to Lee.

“Now we’re able to look at some other things,” he said.

Despite the resurfacing, there are still a few streets in the city lacking pavement. For instance, part of Middleground Road is still dirt. Lee said that there are no plans to pave such streets this year.

Many of them have right-of-way issues, he explained. Those must be resolved before any work by the city can be done.

Schofield expects the resurfacing to begin next week and to take about a week to complete.

Streets to be resurfaced:
Street                    Distance
Lexington Avenue  4th Street to the city limits
East 10th Street     Highway 21 to Richland Avenue
Savannah Avenue  West 9th Street to West 8th Street
Greenbay Avenue   th Street to the end
Giles Avenue          West 9th Street to West 7th Street
Savannah Avenue   7th Street to West 5th Street
Long  Street           Highway 21 to the end
E. Johnson Street    Highway 21 to the railroad crossing
Shaw Street            Highway 21 to the end
15th Street             Highway 21 to the railroad crossing
Weisenbaker Road  Woodbury Lane to Willowpeg Way