City Council To Vote On Part Of The Plaza Boulevard Extension Project

Mentor City Council is expected to vote on a contract for a demolition that is part of the project when it meets at 7 p.m. today at .

The city needs to demolish a storage unit before it can lengthen Plaza Boulevard until it intersects with St. Clair Avenue. The extension would give drivers a way to get from Tyler Boulevard to Great Lakes Mall without going through busy Mentor Avenue intersections at Chillicothe Road or Center Street.

Council can vote on whether to pay $32,500 to demolish the storage unit, which is the only building that stands in the way of construction.

If they approve the contract, OsAir is scheduled to destroy the building on Aug. 31.

The rest of the Plaza Boulevard extension will likely not be completed until the city finds outside money to partially fund the project.

most of the engineering and other preliminary work is done on the project. However, the city wants to find some outside funding for the extension so it will not need to pay the entire $3.2 million that it's expected to cost.

Initially, the city intended to include extension . However, Zampedro said they hoped some federal money might become available after the elections in November.

Consequently, the city could revisit the project while working on its 2013 budget, Zampedro said.

He added the city could afford to pay for the extension itself if needed.

"We do have the ability to pay for it ourselves," he previously said. "Obviously, we'd be taking on some additional debt to do that. So we'd prefer to wait a year or two to seek outside funding."

Also at the meeting, City Council can vote on a contract for the Corduroy Road streetscape improvement project.

The project would restore and enhance 375 feet of tree lawn in the right of way on Corduroy that is just south of Jordan Road.

The contractor would add gutters to both side of the street, as well as a sidewalk to the east side of the street, and plant trees on the tree lawns.

TC Construction has offered to complete the project for $122,783.

The complete legislation for tonight's meeting is attached as a PDF.