Stanford Mayor Bill Miracle said June 7 he anticipated the paving would begin within three weeks, making a possible starting date around June 28 or earlier.
Recent renovations to sidewalks along Main Street have been part of the Transportation Cabinet's project.
State rules require the sidewalks along the project to be brought in line with standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Miracle said when the paving does begin, it will be done after-hours, not during the day. Those driving in Stanford need to be aware of the paving because vehicles won't be allowed to park on Main Street during the work, he added.
"If you're parked on Main Street after 5 p.m. (once repaving begins), there's a really good chance you're going to get towed," he said.
• Water upgrade in the works: The first stage of a plan to replace all of Stanford's older water lines has been in the works for at least three years, and now construction could begin in five to six months, Stanford Water Commission Chairman Jack Withrow said.
Water Department Manager Ryan Owens said the project, one of the department's top priorities, will replace eight-inch water lines along Danville Avenue from Somerset Street north to the Sunset Motel at U.S. 150.
Six-inch water lines will also be installed that create a loop in the system, allowing for improved water quality and better water pressure, Owens and Withrow said.
Owens said actual construction on the approximately $1 million project is still a ways off. The Water Department is still in the process of determining where all existing underground utility lines are, including sewer, gas and possibly even telephone lines.
Once they have all that information, the plan still has to go through the state division of water and meet requirements for any grant money the water department has received, all of which takes time.
"It has to go through all the bells and whistles and up the flag pole, so to speak, to make sure everything is done properly," Owens said.
Withrow estimated at least 500-600 homes will be affected either directly or indirectly by the improved water lines when the project is completed.
The project could also include the addition of a couple new fire hydrants, which would improve the city's ISO ratings and potentially lower the cost for insurance, he added.
Owens and Withrow said they hope to find as much grant funding as possible for the project to keep the cost to the city as low as possible, but the department will still be able to move ahead with the project using a loan even if it can't get any grant funding.
"Right now with the way the economy is, everybody's got their hand out," Owens said. "So we're looking every where we can."
The south end of the water project overlaps with the west end of the state's repaving project, meaning if the repaving goes forward as planned, construction for the water project might cause some of the newly paved road to be dug up again.
Miracle said he is attempting to find out from the transportation cabinet if the portion of repaving that overlaps can be put off until after the water project.
Withrow said Monday no word has come back to him yet on whether that will happen.
• House demolished: A burned-out house at 206 Lancaster Street was demolished last week as part of the city's plan to create a new downtown parking area.
In May, the city council approved a land-swap deal with First Southern National Bank, giving the bank a portion of the land known as the Creamery Property at the end of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in exchange for the 206 Lancaster Street property.
As part of the deal, First Southern agreed to reimburse the city the costs of demolishing, leveling and paving the land.
Miracle said he feels comfortable estimating the parking lot could be available for use in about 45 days. AG&E Engineering is currently drawing up specifications for the parking lot and the city is continuing to work with the county on a plan to combine the new parking lot with an existing parking lot owned by the county on the north side of the property.
• Sewer repaired: Miracle said when new street lights were put in several years ago, one of them was installed in such a way that it interfered with the sewage line coming from the building now occupied by Bluebird.
Now that Bluebird occupies the building, the interference was creating problems for the business, Miracle said. The sewer line was corrected last week and now the curb area is being replaced. A crew from Lincoln County ReadyMix was working on the site Friday.
• Storm drain replaced: About a block down from Bluebird, construction crews successfully replaced a stretch of storm drain running perpendicularly underneath Main Street in front of the city parking garage.
Miracle said the plan wasn't to replace the whole line, but once crews got down to the pipe, it was determined it would be better to do a complete replacement.
Crews also repaired an issue that was causing a sinkhole in front of the garage.
The state is paying for the cost of replacing the storm drain and fixing the sinkhole, Miracle said.
"Hopefully that's going to remedy our problems for at least a large percentage of our problems in that area with flooding and drainage," he said.
