City council discusses street paving priorities

The Clarendon City Council identified a stretch of Fourth Street as its next target for improved paving during the April 9 regular meeting and stated a desire to look at bigger paving projects in the future.

With work wrapping up on a one-block paving project on Fourth between Allen and Koogle streets, aldermen set aside a plan put forward by city engineers and said they wanted to finish Fourth Street between Koogle and Jefferson.

The plan before the council was to focus the city’s next street work on Faker, Jackson, Hawley, McClelland, and Goodnight streets between US 287 and Fourth Street, but Alderman Ashlee Estlack said the stretch of Fourth should be a higher priority and carries more traffic between the school and downtown.

“Let’s finish Fourth, and then let’s think bigger,” she said. “Plan big and see what we can do. When I say ‘big’ I mean let’s pave the whole town ‘big,’ even if we have to phase it in over 30 years.”

In other city business, the council reviewed and approved changes to the job descriptions of several city employees. The work follows meetings Mayor Jacob Fangman has had with Barboza and City Secretary Machiel Covey regarding the interactions of city workers and who answers to whom. Fangman said he feels staff relations are improving in the city.

Barboza reported that the city has received an award from PRPC recognizing its recycling efforts over the last 15 years.