Council learns about streetscape issues

The Vandalia City Council on Monday paid the final bill on the city’s latest downtown streetscape work, and heard an update on the next project.
It also learned why a section of Gallatin Street was cut out on Monday.
The council approved a $4,002.36 payment to Mettler Development of Highland for streetscape work in the 700 block of West Gallatin Street that included a new road surface, curbing and period lighting.
As they approved that payment, Alderman Andy Lester asked whether the city will reimburse St. James Lutheran Church for the installation of a railing along a handicapped ramp in the sidewalk in front of the church.
“That will be up to this governing body,” Gottman said, adding that that issue will be addressed in the future.
The installation of that railing has been an issue in recent months, and the city is looking into installing similar ramps along raised sections of sidewalk along Gallatin Street.
Later in the meeting, Gottman told aldermen that HMG Engineers of Carlyle is wrapping up work on specifications for streetscape improvements in one-block sections north and south of Gallatin Street downtown.
Gottman said that the engineers’ preliminary estimates show that the city will only have enough money for such improvements on Fourth and Fifth streets.
Those streetscape improvements are being funded with $630,000 in Community Development Assistance Program grant funds from the state.
The mayor asked Public Works Director John Moyer to explain why a section of Gallatin Street just east of Fifth Street was cut out on Wednesday.
Moyer said it was just recently discovered that a streetscape project contractor had failed to hook up the sewer line to the building just east of city hall.
It wasn’t discovered earlier, Moyer said, because the bathroom facilities in the building owned by Dennis Grubaugh have hardly been used since the completion of the streetscape project about two years ago.
Moyer said he believes that Hank’s Excavating of Belleville was the contractor responsible for making the sewer line hookups.
He said that the public works department has completed its work on the project, and that a private contractor will now come in to bore under the roadway, to alleviate the need to tear out the sidewalk.
Asked who will have to pay for the work, Moyer said, “It will probably be the property owner … we’re kind of dividing the bill up.”
Moyer also told alderman that the city will have to deal with a similar situation on Sixth Street.
Alderman Andy Lester asked whether HMG Engineers “bears any responsibility” for the error, and Gottman said it does not, due to the fact that the project was completed two years ago, and that the streetscape project had a one-year guarantee period.
Asked by Alderman Terry Beesley if there is any way the city can recover funds it spends for this work, Gottman said that he will be talking to officials with the Illinois Department of Transportation, since that state agency was also involved in the oversight of the work.