By James Coulter
Lake Wales Cemetery is closer to having its roadways resurfaced now that the city has considered authorizing a piggyback agreement to fund that project along with other street resurfacings within the city.
At their workshop on Wed. Aug. 28, Lake Wales City Commissioners reviewed a piggyback agreement for several street resurfacing projects.
Through this agreement with Asphalt Paving System Inc. (APS), $471,822 will go towards the resurfacing of the roadways in Lake Wales Cemetery, while $1,466,180 will go towards the resurfacing of various city streets.
Mark Calvert, Public Works Operations Manager, wrote that the proposed agreement “is based on a competitively bid contract with the Board of Sumter County Commissioners for similar services.”
He also wrote, “A budget amendment will be needed to transfer funds from the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds to the Capital Funds.”
Commissioner Carol Gillespie inquired about the necessity of piggyback agreements, asking why such agreements were used for such projects, and how the city determined which contracts to use.
Sarah Kirkland, Public Works Director, answered that piggyback agreements saved time and provided “the benefit of other cities going through the process.” As for how the contracts were selected, Kirkland said they “looked for the best price.”
Commissioner Keith Thompson suggested that the city consider working on the city alleys soon, claiming, “the alleys are in poor condition and getting worse.”
