In a special meeting of the Phillips County Board of Commissioners on Oct. 23, action was taken related to sidewalk and parking lot upgrades on the grounds surrounding the county courthouse.

The board authorized Garold Roberts, Board Chairman, to sign and issue a Notice to Proceed effective Oct. 18 to Simon Contractors for getting the courthouse sidewalk project underway. County staff and contractors had held a pre-construction meeting on Oct. 18 to discuss next steps and timelines. At that time, TLM Constructors, a subcontractor for Simon, stated they could get started on the new sidewalk as early as Oct. 30.

Also for the sidewalk project, the board approved to allow Chairman Roberts to sign and issue the Notice to Proceed, effective Oct.23, to RockSol Consulting, Inc. for materials testing and documentation and construction management support in the amount of $23,353.22.

The board also approved a $5,018.84 payment to Bell Asphalt Maintenance LLC for the courthouse parking lot seal coating project.

The replacement of the sidewalk has been anticipated since the recent re-asphalting of Highway 385 was first scheduled. The sidewalk could not be replaced until after the courthouse corners at intersections and street curbs were reconstructed.

The overall cost of the project is $396,311. The County was able to off-set the majority of that with a $344,693 Multimodel Transportation and Mitigations Option Fund grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Roberts said that he was pleased that the work was going to be nearing completion soon and that costs to the county tax payers was kept to the most minimum possible.