OROVILLE – Since Oroville will be making improvements to Central Avenue and Cherry Street the city has planned to replace some old water line under the streets at the same time.

Toward that end the city has hired the firm, Shea, Carr and Jewell Inc. to engineer the water line replacement as part of the overlay of Central and Cherry Street. During the process the city will also be making improvements to the handicap ramps along the sidewalks.

“We want to do the waterline improvement at the same time the streets are being fixed. The actual construction of the line is within the amount we budgeted for,” Rod Noel, Superintendent of Public Works told the Oroville Council at their last meeting.

“Most of the design is finished, the street part that is. There are two projects, some of the sidewalk cuts will require the fire hydrants be moved. This will save us money on the water project because the ramps are part of the street project and will be picked up under the federal tab.”

Noel said the ramps are being changed because of new codes that only allow single ramps on corners in very limited situations. The state is now going with two ramps, one on each side of the corner that enter into crosswalks, rather than the street.

“The design of the water portion of the project is moving along, I think it will be done shortly,” said Noel.

Utilities Study

Varella and Associates, the city’s engineers, has asked the council whether they would like the firm to do a study on Oroville’s Utility Rates and on their ERU levels and to ask if the county would like to participate. The study would look at the East Lake area for grants for low to moderate income people that would like their residences hooked up to the sewer system.

“If there was no funding that Varella would not charge a fee for doing the study. The last census says there are low to moderate income families in the city, but does not survey income on either side of the lake,” said City Clerk Kathy Jones.

Mayor’s Mind Unchanged

The council met in a closed-door executive session after they were asked to reconsider an appointment to the ambulance crew that the mayor had turned down last month. After the council returned they voted to continue to support the mayor in his decision.