Circle street renovation work is halted

The downtown Sebring Circle renovation has been halted due to unexpected complications, and Public Works Director Rob Miller is hoping to get fresh directions from the City Council at today's special meeting.

The Council will meet at 5 p.m. today at City Hall, located at 368 S. Commerce Ave.

Miller wanted the special meeting to prevent a nine-day delay while waiting for the council to hold its regular meeting on Sept. 7.

"Any change that affects the overall contract has to go back before council for approval," said Miller, and these changes would.

The meeting was called in reaction to inquiries from Community Redevelopment Agency Commissioner Gene Brenner, who did not realize that a lot of the existing sidewalk downtown alongside the buildings was going to remain, said Miller.

"The improvements that we're doing are replacing the curb and gutter," said Miller.

"And then five feet from there we're putting in brick pavers, and after those brick pavers, up to the buildings, the existing sidewalk was designed to remain," he added.

Brenner thought leaving the existing sidewalk against the buildings would look terrible.

But there was fear that some buildings may not have footers and could be damaged due to excessive vibrations from jackhammers.

Plus, even with no building damage, ripping out the existing concrete and replacing it could possibly double the cost of the existing $300,000 contract with Excavation Point.

Miller said pressure cleaning, washing or sand blasting could make the sidewalks look better, but each had its downside.

He needed guidance on whether he should leave the sidewalks alone, rip out the existing concrete or maybe try a pattern textured pavement they plan on using on the crosswalks in the Circle.

Paving contractor Mark Fox and his son Zachary, of Paveway Systems, were at Sebring City Hall Monday to put down three sample patches of his product for council members to look at in between its two parking lots.

The product is a thick coat of non-slip aggregate rock on top of a special polymer base.

"We're considering maybe not doing a pattern, but just a textured colored coating over the remaining sidewalks to kind of blend everything together," said Miller. "Whatever change we do for this portion is not a slam-dunk kind of a thing. It's going to be fairly expensive."

The second problem is they wanted to extend the streetscape down from Wall Street on North Ridgewood Drive over to Pine Street.

The third concern is they have concrete island bump-outs for landscaping on North and South Commerce Avenue and East and West Center Avenue, which would prevent fire trucks from making turns when the Circle is closed during events.

They also could lose multiple parking spaces.

"I want to get through this project without getting tarred, feathered and run out of town," he said.

Fourth, planned soaker hoses for the new irrigation could become plugged, creating a maintenance nightmare, he said. He wanted to go with a tried and true system.

Lastly, the patterned textured pavement for the crosswalks in the Circle will make the crossings look like real brick crossings and he wanted to extend that look throughout the project.

"We were thinking if we're going to have the Circle looking nice, let's try and make as much of the city look as nice as we can," he said.