City Hosts Open House on North-Side Forrest Street Paving Project

SIDNEY--The North Side of Sidney is getting prepared for the Forrest Street Paving Project, which will involve a repaving, widening and an upgrade of water and sewer systems on Forrest Avenue. The public was invited to meet at the City of Sidney Council Room on Thursday afternoon, April 4, where Sidney officials and others involved in the project were available to answer questions and address the concerns of Sidney and North Side residents.

Don Dye, an engineer with M.C. Schaff that is contracted with the city to do the engineering on the projects that will be starting soon around town, with the first being the Forrest Avenue project. Dye said, "The Forrest Street project will be starting on April 15. We're going to start at 17th Street and Forrest, and move are way down to 19th Street, going towards North Side Park. We plan on replacing the center two lanes of 19th Street up to Elm Street. Then we start water main construction on 17th Street and work our way west.

The plan is to keep the project moving forward by quickly closing off and restarting services as the project finishes in a certain area. This will minimize inconvenience and keep the project moving forward to ensure its on-time completion. The entire project is expect to be completed between mid-August and September 1st. "A lot of the exact timing of completion is going to depend upon weather. If we have good weather in the summer, we should get done by mid-August," Dye said.

Dye said that cooperation of the local residents will be very important, and that the city has done everything possible to minimize inconvenience and downtime of services, but their will be some inconveniences that residents will have to deal with.

"Local residents should expect some inconveniences for a bit, like not being able to park in their driveways or park on the street. We ask that they have to park on side streets wherever possible. Also, there might have to be some movement of dumpsters in alleys to accommodate construction, but the city will be there to help out in any way possible."

The Forrest Street Project is the first of many projects that is being partially funded by a 1/2 cent City Sidney Sales Tax that was recently re-authorized. Coming up in the summer, the city plans on paving projects for the Sidney Aquatic Center, the Living Memorial Gardens and Hillside Golf Course, among other projects.