South Jacksonville Oil & Chip Program To Add More Streets After Bid Letting

By Benjamin Cox on June 2, 2023 at 2:05pm

A few more South Jacksonville streets are going to get resurfaced this year.

Village officials opened bids for the oil & chip program for village streets as a part of the Motor Fuel Tax letting process.

Village President Dick Samples says the village received only one bid total, which came in under the village’s allotted MFT amount set by the state: “The engineers’ estimates came in at $156,000. That’s the amount that we turned into the state. Had the bid exceeded that amount, we would have had some problems but it was under that amount at $130,000. What we are wanting to do is use the rest of the money up to that $156,000 to go ahead and just do some more streets. Everything west of South Diamond is scheduled to be done this year. This $26,000 will allow us to jump over South Diamond and take in 3 streets that are inner-connected. It’s not a cul-de-sac but these streets are all hooked together.”

Samples did not wish to comment on a citizen’s concerns on his street about aggregate going into the village’s sewer systems, and about their concerns about improper patchwork done on the village’s streets for the past several years.

Streets & Utilities Superintendent Brian English was not present at the village board meeting last night because of extended work throughout the night on a large water main break next to the railroad tracks on East Vandalia.

Samples says ratification of the Motor Fuel Tax program will come at the Village’s committee of the whole meeting on June 22nd. He says the letting of the bids came too late to get the ratification on this meeting’s agenda as an action item.