By Jay Compton

jay.compton@middlesboronews.com

The city of Pineville’s Courthouse Square streetscape project ran into another delay last month when bids for the project came in $1.4 million over budget.

Mayor Scott Madon said he had anticipated the bids would come in high, but not by that much. Still, he said the city had several options to either save money by modifying parts of the project or to bring in new funding through a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

“The ARC (which already has provided a $705,000 grant for the project) has some extra money and they had told us going in that they thought the project would come in over bid because everybody’s projects are,” Madon said. “They told us to fill out an application and resubmit when it does.”

The city has applied for another $1 million grant from the ARC, and Madon expects to find out this month if the city will receive that full amount or smaller grant.

“It won’t be a long waiting period like it was before,” Madon said.

The mayor added that he wasn’t sure if the ARC would have the project re-bid or if the city could go ahead and award the project to the lowest bidder.

“The guys from London (who are working on the Boone’s Ridge Wildlife Center) had the same person contracted that is doing a lot of the brick inlays. He has contacted their engineers and told them he has found the same brick tile we need for $350,000 cheaper,” Madon said. “If we can get another $1 million and rebid it with that cheaper tile in there that would just an about have us at our budget.”

Among the other options are having brick laid for the crosswalks but not in the parking spots and other areas around the square. Madon said that would save around $1 million.

“We’ve got some options, we’re just waiting to see how much ARC is going to give us and I’ve got a little bit of money we put back in anticipation of the bids coming in over budget,” he said.

Mason said he had spoken to the governor’s office as well as State Rep. Adam Bowling and State Sen. Johnnie Turner on Wednesday.

“We’ll know more on Monday and we’ll try to have some specific dates if the project has to be re-bid,” he said.

The Pineville City Council will hold its regular monthly meeting on Monday at 6 p.m. at the Bell Theater.

In other council news, Main Street Pineville’s eighth annual Gala will be Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Pine Mountain State Resort Park. It’s a celebration of last year’s accomplishments with a look ahead to the plans for the upcoming year.

Kentucky Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Debbie Lambert will speak at the event, and there also are plans to honor former Main Street Pineville Executive Director Jacob Roan.