Marysville Mayor J.R. Rausch reads a proclamation at Monday night’s city council meeting declaring with week Police Week. Standing next to him, from left, are Marysville Police Chief Floyd Golden, Sgt. Ron Nicol and Officer Anthony Pizzi.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Will Channell)
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The project to lower a portion of Route 38 near Boerger Road might start this week, about a month early.
According to City Manager Terry Emery at Monday night’s Marysville City Council meeting, Sunoco could start lowering their utility pipe on Route 38 as early as Wednesday. The city has made it clear to Sunoco that at least one lane of traffic must be open until Marysville Schools are out for the summer.
“We want to make sure traffic is still maintainable through the end of the school year,” he said.
Once school is out, Sunoco will be able to “aggressively” work on the pipeline lowering.
Emery said the early start is due to availability in Sunoco’s schedule.
Meanwhile, bids for the paving portion of the project open today.
The city will continue to provide residents with updates through its social media channels.
“We’ll keep everyone updated,” he said.
Emery also told council the city has chosen a bidder to install the new Cook’s Pointe road between Routes 31 and 4. After opening bids May 7, Trucco Construction was picked. Emery said their bid came in about slightly under $3 million, 20 percent less than the city expected.
Emery said the bid may have come in low because the contractor wouldn’t need to deal with traffic.
Emery said Trucco is well respected, and most recently known locally as doing infrastructure work at the Costco development down U.S. 33.
Emery said the project should begin within the “next few weeks.”
“I was a little bit concerned with how far into the construction season we were getting, and (Trucco does) have some other projects,” Emery said. “But they’re going to get on this one pretty quickly.”
Emery also announced his retirement on May 31 – to be rehired in the same position June 1.
In an interview with the Journal-Tribune, Emery said his retirement is a procedural matter that will allow him to collect his pension and lessen his city salary.
According to Emery, he’s been on his pension plan for nearly 32 years. After May 31, he’ll begin collecting it and his pay from the city will be reduced by five percent. He’ll remain on the city’s insurance plan.
He said generally when public employees do this, they leave for about two months before being rehired, during which they can start collecting their pension.
Emery felt that the city shouldn’t go without a manager for an extended period of time, so he decided to forego two months of pension and asked to retire and come back within a day.
In other council news:
-Rausch declared this week as Police Week in Marysville, celebrating law enforcement officers in Union County. He noted the “numerous outreach programs” that come out of the various local law enforcement agencies.