As of early Tuesday evening, the joint roadwork project between the Bellwood Borough, Bellwood-Antis School District, and Antis Township for the upgrading of Martin Street, which runs alongside the school and baseball field, will have reached completion.
In June, Bellwood Borough Council representatives went to the school district and proposed doing roadwork near the school. If the school district was willing to replace the sidewalk and curbing on Martin Street, from 2nd Street to just beyond 4th Street, the borough would be able to pave up to the curb. By doing this, greatly needed additional parking would be possible to provide to the community of Bellwood.
The Bellwood-Antis School District didn’t waste any time on the project. The school district bid in June and by July, Blaircon Building, Inc. were hired to begin sidewalk and curbing installment along Martin Street at a cost of $35,300.
The Bellwood Borough likewise placed a bid and hired New Enterprise Stone & Lime Company, Inc., Roaring Spring, to do the paving for the project. The cost of the paving was roughly between $27,000 to $28,000, and the materials for the paving part of the project would be bought by New Enterprise locally in Tyrone.
Antis Township joined in on the project when Bellwood Borough approached the township with the project. Ray Amato, Antis Township Supervisor, elaborated on what the township plans to do with their end of the project. “In the next couple of weeks, we’re going to widen the lower end of the road about three feet, which will help the storm water drain into the drainage system and ditches.” Amato added, “It’s good that we all can work together like this, and I hope it continues in the future.”
The Martin Street Project quickly reached a finality in less than three months, thanks to the joint efforts of the borough, school district and township. Even the paving of the roadway didn’t take long. Calvin Childres, Foreman of the project site for New Enterprise, stated, “It was a one day project. We started around 6:30 in the morning and we should be finishing up around five or six this (Tuesday) evening.” He added, “We’ve had no problems; everything’s running smoothly.”
Ken Swanson, Business Manager of the Bellwood-Antis School District commemorated the efforts of everyone involved, “It was a good cooperative effort. The borough had funding they could use for the paving, we used money from our capital improvements to do the sidewalk and curbing.” He added, “Parking is one of our improvements and this project provides more availability for parking.”
Parking was the main issue for the school district and borough of Bellwood. Borough Council President, Wayne Snare, said that parking by the school has been a problem, and the Martin Street Project would solve that problem.
“Parking was needed, but the road needed updated anyway,” said Snare. “Everything fell in line and worked out good for everyone. Antis Township had a little part in the project also, so everyone was involved.”
Snare added, “Everybody worked together between the school, borough and township, which was nice. And it’s going to be done before school is back in session, which is great also.”
