Timeline for FR paving project backed up

Progress on Fort Recovery’s street overlay project has slowed, but village administrator Randy Diller expects it to begin moving forward again soon.
At the village council’s July 6 meeting, Diller said a Wagner Paving contractor would visit soon to look at the streets and talk about the project’s timeline. Like many companies after this summer’s rain and flooding, Wagner Paving is behind on projects. Diller now plans on having that visit this week, he told council at its Monday night meeting.
“Everything paperwork-wise is ready to go, so it’s just a matter of them getting here to do the work,” Diller said.
Wagner Paving will repave First, Railroad, Boundary, Broadway, Oak, Third, High and Wagner streets at a cost of $227,769.25. The council voted at its July 6 meeting to transfer $220,000 from the general fund to the street fund for the project.
On Monday, council members Rob Thobe, Dave Garman, Dave Kaup, Dave Bretz and Cliff Wendel, absent Allen Post, approved another transfer of $35,000 from the general fund to the sewer improvement fund to pay for work on the sewer lagoons.
Tom’s Construction, which bid $32,500 on the project, expects to begin work this week or next week. Improvements to hydraulics should take a week and allow sewage to flow through the lagoons more thoroughly before exiting.
Fort Recovery is also working on a project to replace damaged bricks on Wayne Street. While snow plows and other normal activity have likely damaged some bricks, council members suspect the bricks may have been faulty.
Reading Rock, which supplied the pavers, agreed that it was responsible for 20 imperfect bricks, Diller said, though more are damaged. The company will pay for the replacement of those 20 bricks, and will supply bricks to replace all that have been damaged. Fort Recovery will be responsible for paying for the labor to install the rest.
The council had its first reading of an ordinance establishing a mutual aid agreement among Fort Recovery, St. Henry, Coldwater and Rockford police departments.
“It’s very similar to the way we’ve operated in the past, but we just never had anything in writing,” Diller said.
“It states in there that we’re all liable for our own actions,” said police chief Jared Laux.
The agreement also states that departments can lend each other equipment if necessary.
“Say a tornado would go through Rockford. Right now we’ve got an extra cruiser,” Laux said. Fort Recovery could tell Rockford, “‘Until you guys get on your feet, here’s a cruiser to use.’”