06/13/17 — Street paving project to start soon

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Street paving project to start soon

By Steve Herring
Published in News on June 13, 2017 7:10 AM

Construction could get underway within the next two weeks on a roughly $1.6 million street repair project in the Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions just north of Goldsboro.

The start will come nearly two years after subdivision residents first appealed to Wayne County commissioners for help.

Steve Cole, one of the residents in the area, is excited that all of the time and work over the past two years will soon come to fruition.

"It has been two years, but it was something new for the county," he said. "We are all pleased."

Residents had been trying to find a solution for five or six years before appealing to commissioners, Cole said. And even though it has taken two years, if it had not occurred, residents would still be grumbling about what to do, he said.

Cole said he thinks the solution is fair to residents and is pleased that they were able to keep enough residents interested so that the project could move forward.

The initial estimate from the state Department of Transportation for the work was for more than $3 million.

The county decided to hire its own engineer to get a second estimate.

Last week commissioners awarded a $1,557,921.85 contract for the work to Trader Construction.

The cost will be repaid by residents of the subdivision through a special property tax levy. All property owners in the subdivision, even those who did not sign the petition for the project, will still be billed.

Residents will have a choice of prepaying without interest in one lump amount or they can pay it with interest over a 10-year period.

The exact amount of the levy will not be known until after the work is completed and paid for.

Commissioners included $2.22 million for the street repairs in the $42 million it plans to borrow through a bond sale for a number of projects including the new Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center and the new Meadow Lane Elementary School and its Edgewood Community Developmental School wing.

Residents first started attending commissioners' meetings seeking help for streets they said were in such disrepair as to not only be dangerous to motorists but that were hurting property values as well.

They asked commissioners to help find a way to have the streets brought up to DOT standards in order for the state to take them over for maintenance.

Commissioners were able to use a state law that allows them to establish special tax levy district, in this case for street repairs.

Several subdivisions were interested in the process, but residents in Canterbury Village and North Creek were the first to submit a valid petition seeking the street improvements.

The proposed project area includes 123 residential lots fronting on the subdivision streets of East April Lane, Abbey Place, Adler Lane, Chancery Drive, Coventry Drive, Helms Court, Helms Drive, Hyde Park Drive, Lane Tree Drive and Londonderry Drive.

The policy approved last year by the board provides $2.5 million every two years for subdivision street repairs.

The policy also sets forth guidelines that commissioners approve projects in the order that the petitions are declared valid and all public hearings have been conducted.

Before the county becomes involved, at least 75 percent of the property owners representing at least 75 percent of the property road frontage in a subdivision must petition commissioners to start the process.