Elizabeth council gets updates on projects, applies for grants

Council is hoping to secure more funding for the new riverwalk pedestrian walkway.

Several summer projects are moving along in Elizabeth Borough.

At Tuesday’s regular meeting, council amended the agenda to add a motion to accept the lowest bid proposal from John D Caruso Inc., in the amount of $30,223 to pave Seventh Avenue.

Council will use $20,000 in grant funding for the project, and the remainder of the costs will be paid out of the budget, according to council President Tim Guffey.

During his monthly report, Borough Manager Scott Craighead said engineering work to raise the barge for the Riverwalk Project is proceeding, and he said they hope to have construction started by early fall.

There has also been an application to apply for a $250,000 Greenways Trails and Recreation Program grant through the state Department of Community and Economic Development for the borough’s Riverwalk project.

The borough also voted Tuesday to apply for another $500,000 grant for the project.

The borough already applied for $250,000 from the same program for Phase II of the riverwalk.

Craighead said they are hoping to secure more funding for the project.

He said since there is a 10% engineers fee and they didn’t get a quote yet from their own engineers, there were discussions about getting other Pittsburgh experts involved.

The project would be a handicap accessible pedestrian walkway, which will be near the Monongahela River with a goal to bring more people and businesses into the borough, Craighead added.

Other borough projects include the demolition of the Water Works building at 808 S. 2nd Ave.

The process of working on demolition is underway, according to Craighead, and surveys are being performed as they hope to solicit bids for demolition in August.

“We had an asbestos survey done last week, and when those results come back, whatever needs to be done with that will be part of the demolition bids,” Craighead said. “We have roughly $1,000 left on our grant for that, and we have had some contractors giving us some estimates on that. Hopefully we get that done with the remaining money we have.”

The borough also approved a resolution Tuesday to apply for a Mainstreet Matters Program grant for commercial building facades not to exceed $100,000 as buildings in the borough have been crumbling – including one last month on Second Avenue.

Other work last month included trimming trees along the roads that have become hazardous, painting curbs/ streets, grass cutting/landscaping, cleaning the boat launch and barge area as often as possible to keep it open for fishing and other activities as well as other maintenance.

“These are the typical things we do in the summer, plus some of the additional barge things,” Craighead said.

In other matters, council will begin working on next year’s budget as council will meet with the finance and planning committees in early August.