Council Approves $2.7 Million Bond Issue for Several Projects

The City Council approved more than $2.7 million in bonds for several sidewalk, road, bridge and school projects on Monday night, but the Sagamore Bridge replacement project generated the most discussion.

City Councilor Anthony Coviello asked Public Works Director Steve Parkinson if the new Sagamore Bridge will have some safety built into it to prevent kids from jumping off of it. “Will the new bridge be capable of preventing someone from illegally jumping off the bridge?”

Parkinson indicated that the new bridge would not have anything extra in the way of fencing or higher rails to prevent people from jumping into the Sagamore Creek. City Manager John Bohenko said, “Well we certainly don’t condone it.”

Assistant Mayor Robert Lister asked if the Sagamore Bridge will have to be totally closed while it is being replaced.

Parkinson said the bridge will definitely be closed for some period of time and motorists will have to use alternate routes and detours similar to the way they did when the city buttressed the bridge with reinforcements in 2010. Currently, he said the city's fire trucks can’t go across the bridge now.

City Councilor Brad Lown asked Parkinson if the new bridge will make the same "singing" sound it does now when vehicles drive on the grates and Parkinson said it will not. Parkinson also said the new Sagamore Bridge will be a much stronger structure that will have a wider sidewalk on one side and will be able to support all traffic.

The Route 1A Sagamore bridge is slated for removal and replacement beginning in 2013 and when that project gets underway, city Public Works Department officials say motorists will have to seek alternative routes.

In an earlier press release, Tom Richter of the city's Public Works Department, wrote the 71-year-old bridge was closed for a short period in May 2010 for $217,000 worth of temporary repairs and also had been repaired in 1984.

He wrote that current plans call for the project to be put out to bid in late spring next year with work anticipated to begin in summer 2013. Construction of a replacement bridge could take as long as a year.

The council unanimously approved $2.2 million in bonds for the FY 2013 capital improvements for bridge, sidewalks and streets including:

• $700,000 for Daniel Street sidewalks
• $400,000 phrase III of McDonough Street improvements for water, sewer curbing sidewalks, landscaping
• $300,000 Aldrich Road traffic improvements to slow traffic speeds and increase pedestrian safety
• $500,000, Pease Development Authority roadway rehabilitation for roads sidewalks

City Councilor Jack Thorsen asked whether or not the city could postpone some of this work such as new brick walking, landscaping and period lighting to cut the $700,000 in half for the Daniel Street sidewalk work.

Bohenko said it is last portion of the downtown that needs to be done.

Thorsen also asked that if the sidewalks are replaced now by Connie Bean or McIntyre Building, will the city have to do it all over again when those projects are redeveloped.

Parkinson said the Public Works will hold off on that area in front of the Connie Bean “until we see what happens in that block.”

The City Council also unanimously approved a $500,000 FY 2013 capital improvements bond issue for the Portsmouth School Department that will be used to replace older sections of roof at the high school, upgrade the electrical panels in the elementary school computer lab, and to replace existing boiler at New Franklin School with an energy efficient boiler.