The driving lanes of Center Street from Stillwater Avenue to North Sixth are on Dennison's paving list for this summer. (Photo by Stacey Carmany, Tusco TV)

Dennison, Ohio - Village officials have their sights set on two downtown roads for improvements this spring. 

Councilman Greg DiDonato says they’ll be spending just over $50,000 to have Newton Asphalt pave the 700 block of North Fourth Street and Center Street from Stillwater Avenue to North Sixth. He says they’re saving some money on Center by having the company pave the travel lanes only.

“We’re not going to go over into the parking area. It’s just a way to cut costs. There’s no problem where they park their cars,” he explains. 

DiDonato says the cost of these two projects is also low enough for the village to bypass the competitive bidding process and hopefully get the work started a little sooner.

“The bids wouldn’t have come until June, and then we’re always getting done in October,” he says. “It would be nice to get it out of the way and we’re not up against the winter trying to get it done.” 

DiDonato says the village is also planning to explore grant and loan opportunities to get First and Second streets on next year’s list for paving. He says this is what they did to help pay for recent improvements along Sherman Street and in the Thornwood Park neighborhood. 

“You’re getting a grant so you’re kind of stretching your money out, and that’s the goal we’re going to use on First and Second,” he says. “You’re probably looking at every bit of another $300,000 on those two streets, so if we can do the same scenario, you can get half of it paid for in a grant and then the other half you’re going to be a low-interest loan, a zero-percent loan.” 

DiDonato says once the work is done, they shouldn’t have to repave those streets again for at least 12 more years.

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV