Uhrichsville, Ohio - City officials are asking residents to remain patient while they try to get caught up on paving.

Mayor Rick Dorland says they had to narrow down their paving list again this year after estimates from the county engineer’s office came back at more than triple their budget.

“We originally submitted a list of approximately 15 streets to the county for the bid. That bid came back in at almost $700,000. Of course, we only have a $200,000 budget so we had to do some cutting,” he says.  

Dorland says they narrowed the list down to the six streets that get the most traffic to bring the cost to just under $193,000.

“The streets that we are doing are West Seventh Street from the cemetery to North Water Street; East Tenth Street, North Main to North Uhrich; Spanson Drive from the Trenton Avenue exit to the city corporation - that’s out by the nursing home and the bowling alley; South Water Street from Trenton Avenue to Moravian Trail; all of Claymont Drive and Packer Street from West First Street to Gatchel Road,” he says.  

Dorland says they still might be able to add another road or two to the list if the final bid comes back lower than the engineer’s estimate. 

“Say it would happen to come in under the 193 thousand, say it would come in at 150 [thousand]. We know we’d have 35, 40 thousand dollars to play with,” he says. “Then, we might be able to add on a, I don’t want to call it a side bet, but we could go to the contractor and say, hey, we’ve got an extra 40 thousand dollars to play with. Can we do this street or this street?”

Dorland says the streets that didn’t make the cut will be up for consideration again next year. He says they’ll do their best to maintain them in the meantime. 

STACEY CARMANY, TUSCO TV