VERSAILLES — Versailles is looking at improvements and road reconstructions as the end of the year rapidly approaches.

There will be a closure of the North West Street railroad crossing beginning on Sept. 9 and lasting for about two weeks. Village administrator Kyle Francis was contacted on Aug. 23 by the CSX’s traffic control contractor in regards to the closing.

“The crossing was supposed to be done earlier this summer, but their crossing materials were stolen prior to the work starting,” Francis said.

A detour route outside of the village will be posted by CSX’s traffic control contractor and has been submitted to ODOT. CSX is not the only business closing roads, the village began its Wagner Paving project on Aug. 26 on the 2024 Street Maintenance Project.

The village will continue to coordinate and communicate with the Darke County Engineer’s Office to time the center line painting work on the newly paved areas of N. Center Street and W. Main Street, as the county striping project is just about complete for the year. Versailles is part of that project.

The asphalt parking lot/driveway area to the south of the Administration Building was patching in with Wagner paving on the 27th.

“This area used to be a wooden storage building that was demolished last year,” Francis said. “We are evaluating our remaining parking lot money for 2024 to see about having this entire lot area asphalt crack sealed this fall.”

With this, the street department personnel have constructed a new asphalt and concrete debris storage area just to the west of the East Water Street Substation.

“Over the past few years, the village has found it ever more difficult to dispose of busted asphalt and concrete from repair and improvement projects,” Francis said.

The new storage area will be used exclusively by village operations only and will be barricaded off from the public. As the material accumulates, the village will contract with a crushing contractor to turn this material into usable gravel.

“This material can either be used by the village for other construction projects or it may be sold to entities wanting to purchase,” Francis said. “The storage area was constructed with a rental bulldozer and asphalt grindings from last year’s paving project were used as the base to keep costs to the village at a minimum.”

Last week, PAB Construction was in to perform some asphalt and concrete sawing in advance of the N. East Street Reconstruction Project. They are anticipating the project to start the third or fourth week of September. Information on a true start date will be provided to residents in the area in advance of the work starting.

Barrett Paving Materials, Inc. will be paying the village back $12,676.42 for the out-of-spec asphalt surface material that was used last fall on the Homer Street and E. Wood Street Reconstruction Project.

“The village has been in communication with the paving contractor, general contractor, and Barrett since this spring in regards to the appearance not looking right for the type of asphalt that was specified for the project,” Francis said.

He advised Barrett admitted in late July that the provided asphalt mix was not was was specified in the project construction plans.

“The workmanship of the asphalt placement was good with no issues,” Francis said. “The existing asphalt currently on the street will be left as-is, but we will continue to monitor it for any deficiencies over the next several years.”

The street department personnel will be starting either next week or the following week on numerous sidewalk/concrete repairs in Ward Park and along Woodland Drive as part of the 2024 CIP. Once work in the park is complete, they will be going to Indian Creek Park and making repairs there as well.

Other repairs the village is working in includes the installation of the new metal light poles along Greenlawn Avenue between Warren Street and Progress Way. All existing wooden utility poles have been removed. The Tree Commission also met of Aug. 23 to discuss the removal of several trees in the downtown streetscape area, as they are causing damage to the sidewalk/brick paver areas.

“The trees are dead or almost there, and some are diseased as is the case of EAB in some ash trees,” Francis said. “Most of the trees that are in need of replacement are from the 2001 streetscape project and have outgrown their tree planters.”

There were additional funds left in the tree trimming budget from the 2024 CIP that can be used for these replanting efforts and will be put together with the tree lottery purchase that the village holds each fall for those recipients. In addition, the village is looking to place at least three to four trees at Jackson Street Municipal Services Facility on the Jackson Street yard areas.

“A new 1500 kVA transformer from Sunbelt-Solomon was set last week with J-Crane at the Weaver Bros. Barn number five site at the Dew Fresh Farm along Christian Road,” Francis said.

Electric linemen have been working on conduit, power cable, a pole-mount recloser, and other pole component installation work over the past week for this new electric service for the facility.

Contact Greenville Daily Advocate Reporter Meladi Brewer at [email protected].