A repaving and sidewalk project in the city of Rincon is being pushed to get completed by the start of the next school year.

The project will repave 9th Street, under the state Department of Transportation’s local maintenance improvement grant, and put in sidewalks. Griffin Contracting was awarded the project with a bid of $258,250.50. Three firms submitted bids, according to Metzger. Y-Delta and Preferred Materials each put forth prices of approximately $294,000 to do the work.

Griffin Contracting will have 120 days to finish the work, but council members wanted to make sure it did not conflict with the start of school in two months.

“Let’s be specific with a start date and an end date,” said Mayor Ken Lee.

City planning director LaMeisha Kelly said the firms were notified at the bid opening about the impending school year and the traffic that accompanies it.

“We’ll make sure we’re clear about that,” she said.

The city recently completed a water and sewer improvement project worth nearly $1.1 million along 9th Street west of Columbia Avenue.
Council members also approved annexing more than 130 acres, with 119 acres in Kate’s Cove subdivision, made up of more than 50 different lots. The subdivision is on the city’s northeast side, off Lexington Avenue.

The city rezoned the parcels as R-4, the classification among the city’s zoning that most closely matches the county’s R-1 zoning. The parcels had been zoned R-1 by the county. City attorney Raymond Dickey pointed out that the zoning title is changing, the essence of how those parcels are zoned is not.

“This zoning does not change your lot layout at Kate’s Cove,” Kelly explained. “It does not affect the minimum house size with the homeowners association.”

“My initial reaction to this was positive,” said resident Robert Cannon.”My reason for signing it was I would benefit from city police and fire. I thought the response time for city police or fire would be much quicker.”

Mayor Lee said the city also expects that city public safety personnel will be able to answer calls in the Kate’s Cove subdivision faster than their county colleagues. City Manager Wesley Corbitt said the city has at least four officers on patrol at any time.

“You’ll get excellent response time,” he said.

Cannon noted city vehicles will have to drive through an unincorporated part of the subdivision to reach the area that is now annexed into the city.

“We hope the front part of Kate’s Cove sees the light and decides to join the city,” he said.