City’s busy sidewalks to be repaired
BRADENTON BEACH – Police Chief John Cosby, who is serving as interim public works director, told the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) about upcoming improvements, including sidewalk repairs, at its June 5 meeting.
Improvements in the CRA district will include sidewalk leveling and repairs to alleviate tripping hazards, the proposed purchase of a custom-made pressure washer, new garbage receptacles along Bridge Street and increased days of trash pickup.
“Any trash that was out there was only tended to once a week,” Cosby said, adding that the first thing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, unless it’s raining, the street will be policed for trash. “They’ll start at the pier and work their way down to the circle at Gulf Drive and go up here to city hall at Second and down to Third to make sure everything is picked up and cleaned up.”
Cosby said on every Thursday, the sidewalks will be blown off and a street sweeper will come down the road to clean up that debris.
“We were only doing that once a month. Now we’ll be doing that every week,” he said.
Cosby said after walking the CRA district with the public works crew, they found tripping hazards in several areas in the sidewalks. He said the city is responsible for all the sidewalks that have shell alongside, including those on Gulf Drive.
“We’ve got the machine and they’re leveling those tripping hazards off,” Cosby said. “A few years ago we had a couple of people who had tripped at different locations and had some serious facial injuries.”
Within the next several weeks, maintenance crews will be replacing sidewalks that are crumbled or crushed in the CRA district, he said.
“The team is able to do that,” Cosby said. “The shell will be put back in the way it was, we’ll just have some new sections and we do have quite a few areas of that where it’s cracked severely.”
Cosby said he will be bringing back to the CRA suggestions about the public works department obtaining a custom-made pressure washer, which would be a 500-gallon tank on a trailer.
“It’s not going to be cheap. But that will allow us to pressure wash the sidewalks, pressure wash the brick in the CRA district and clean the swing sets at the parks,” he said. “This will also allow us to clean the new white signs that are going up. Hopefully, we’re not going to make it too big so we can utilize it on the pier. Right now we have a small pressure washer.”
Cosby said the pressure washer would be designed with a hose reel on it so it can be used for watering.
“Keep in mind we’re paying $3,500 for the HERC truck to do this (watering). By the time we’re done what we’re doing, we could have bought the system we’re talking about,” he said.
Public works employee David Higgins also presented options for new garbage receptacles in the CRA district.
Cosby has been serving as interim public works director since the May resignation of former director Tom Woodard.
“Since we’re planning on delaying hiring a public works director until we figure out what is happening with OPPAGA and what the state is going to do with regards to whatever it is they’re going to do, we’re going to hold off on that because it would not be fair to hire somebody and find out there’s nothing to come to so we’re going to wait,” Cosby said, referring to a proposal to consolidate or eliminate the Island cities, thus eliminating city employees.
“I’m planning on hiring the position we have for the CRA, that’s been in the CRA budget for the last 2.5 years,” Cosby said. “Their work schedule would be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday – that way over the weekend we can make sure the trash is taken care of and any other issues that may come up over the weekend and held keep it tidy.”