Pearl Street slated for repaving

Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

It’s nowhere near imminent, but one of Monticello's worst street is set for repaving later this year or early next year at the latest.
The street is Pearl, which is particularly rough at the intersection with Cherry Street, an area so broken up and repeatedly patched that it resembles a concrete quilt.
City Manager Steve Wingate recently told the Monticello City Council that the city has been awarded a Small Cities Outreach Program (SCOP) grant to resurface the street from Mulberry Street on the west to Railroad Street on the east.
Wingate couldn't say the exact amount of the grant, as it had yet to be revealed. The city, he said, had so far been approved for the engineering and design phase of the project. But typically, he said, such projects were funded to the tune of $150,000 to $200,000.
Wingate said he had received notification from the Florida Department of Transportation, which
oversees the SCOP funding, that the city should proceed with the project before June.
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“I would say that the resurfacing will probably happen toward the end of this year or very early next year,” Wingate said.
Another project that Wingate said was in the hopper was the construction of a sidewalk on the southeast part of town traditionally called Rooster Town.
“We're looking at King Street,” Wingate said, adding that the idea was to connect the sidewalk to the existing bike trail.
He said he believed that city could tackle this project in the not too distant future without problem.
“I think the King Street to the bike trail sidewalk is doable in this year's budget,” Wingate said.
He didn't, however, think that two other proposed sidewalk projects were feasible, or at least not for the city to do them.
One, he said, was the upgrade and expansion of the sidewalk on the south side of Dogwood Street between N. Jefferson and Cherry streets to match the upgraded sidewalk on the north side.
The second, he said, was the installation of a sidewalk alongside Chase Street to Waukeenah St., then either north or south on Waukeenah to Seminole or Cherokee streets respectively, and onto S. Jefferson St.
“I don't think these are jobs for the city,” Wingate said.
The idea for the expansion of sidewalks, he said, was to provide more pedestrian connectivity to city residents.