A resolution notifying residents of the village’s intent to sell $3.5 million in capital improvement bonds for projects including three village streets and the downtown southeast parking quadrant was approved by the Oxford Village Council Nov. 23.
Residents will have 45 days from the date this notice is published in the newspaper (Dec. 8) to gather at least 239 petition signatures (10 percent of the village’s registered voters) if they wish to have any or all of the capital improvement projects go to a vote of the people.
If no vote is initiated within the 45-day period, the village will be able to proceed with the bond sales.
Two street reconstructions and one street relocation (costing a combined $2,335,037) are included in the proposed capital improvements.
Plans call for reconstructing the surface of Glaspie St. (south of E. Burdick St.) and adding new curb and gutter, which aids drainage and extends the life of the road’s surface. New sidewalks and safety paths will be installed on both sides of Glaspie, the whole length of the street.
The existing 12-inch water main along Glaspie would be replaced with a 16-inch main and a new $75,000 traffic signal will be installed at the intersection of Glaspie and E. Burdick/Lakeville Road.
Total cost of the Glaspie St. project ? $820,489.
Pontiac St. (from the village limits to W. Burdick St.) will also undergo a reconstruction with new curb and gutter, plus the installation of a $150,000 storm sewer with leaching basins. No sidewalk work would be done.
Total cost of the Pontiac St. project ? $726,583.
The third street project involves the relocation the Edison Alley, which currently stretches between Broadway and Stanton streets and divides Oxford Bank’s property into two separate parcels ? one containing the main branch and the other containing the finance center. The alley runs straight through the middle of the bank’s parking area.
On March 8, 2004 village voters approved trading the bank this village-owned alley for two pieces of its property ? a small parcel at the northeast corner of Broadway and Washington (M-24) streets and a large parcel on the eastern edge of the bank’s property, stretching between Broadway and Stanton streets.
The village plans to transform the larger of the two parcels into a continuation of Mill St. between Stanton and Broadway. The smaller parcel would be used by the village to create a larger turning radius for a new right-turn lane off Broadway St onto M-24.
Total cost for alley relocation and Broadway right-turn lane is $587,965
In addition to the street projects, the bond will include financing of the long-awaited $1.49 million renovation, expansion, reconfiguration and improvement of the downtown’s southeast parking quadrant by the Oxford Community Development Authority (OCDA).
The parking project will increase the number of lot spaces by 30 (from 108 paved and 20 unpaved spaces to 158 paved spaces).
Additionally, plans calls for 16 marked parking spaces along E. Burdick St. (the first three of which will be a loading zone). Currently, on-street parking there is limited to seven vehicles.
Stanton St. will also see its first-ever on-street parking with seven marked spaces, three of which will be part of a drop off/loading zone in front of the Oxford 7 Cinema.
The project’s total parking, both lot and on-street, will amount to 181 spaces, six of which will be loading/drop off zones, leaving a net of 175 parking spaces.
In addition to reconstructing and expanding the park ing quadrant, the project also includes the moving of S. Mill St. (between E. Burdick and Stanton) approximately 100 feet to the east and demolition of the home at 38 E. Burdick St. (owned by the OCDA) to make way for the re-location.
This re-location of S. Mill St. will line-up with the re-location of the bank’s former alleyway (mentioned earlier) to form a new S. Mill St. that runs straight from E. Burdick to Broadway St.
While the Mill St. re-location’s cost (approximately $139,000) would be paid for strictly out of OCDA funds, the re-construction of the parking lot itself will be financed by a combination of OCDA funds and a special assessment on property owners in the southeast quadrant.
If all goes as planned, Oxford Village Manager Joe Young said all four projects should begin construction in the spring and be completed by late fall.