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At last night’s Public Works committee meeting, the crackfilling project appeared as an informational item on the agenda.  Chairman G. John Ruffolo said that it’s getting kind of late in the year to start this work.  Michael Lemens, Public Works acting director, said that last year’s budget hearings was not the time or the place to make an informed decision on this work.  To do the job properly, Lemens said, three of each of the pieces of equipment (routers, etc.) would be needed, in addition to accessory equipment, trailers to haul the supplies, port-a-potty’s, etc.  Totalling up all of this equipment will run over $148,000.

Chairman G. John Ruffolo stated that the budget for this work has been $125,000 per year in the past.  Ruffolo suggested that the work not be started this year, but that next year, once a better cost analysis of the equipment can be done by the department, that a partial bid be put out for the work.  Possibly, the city could do half of the work, and the other half of the work could be done by a contracted service.

Alderperson Patrick Juliana agreed with Ruffolo.  Juliana said, “We need some concrete numbers.  Plus, we need to take the liability into account, the cost of the equipment, and the incidentals, the cost of workers’ compensation, etc.”

Another informational item discussed at the meeting had to do with honorary street naming.  Apparently, there are several aldpersons who are proposing both honorary street naming and changing the names of some downtown streets on a permanent basis.  One example mentioned was changing the name of 6th Avenue to “Main Street.”  Ruffolo said there are two separate issues here.

Lemens stated that he remembered an honorary ordinance a year ago.  Juliana said that he thought it was a contentious issue for a couple of meetings.  Ruffolo proposed putting it on as a regular agenda item for a future meeting and going through line by line.  City Development is doing some research into changing the street names and will respond to the alderpersons after the review is done.  Ruffolo asked the other committee members for their suggestions to be sent to Lemens and himself before the next meeting.