Joys wants town work done earlier and faster

By Chris Lewis | The Shoreline | Vol. 31 No. 47 (February 6 2019)

The Town of Holyrood is hoping to see future public works projects completed in a timelier manner.

During Tuesday’s regular meeting of council, Coun. Jim Joy, who also chairs the public works committee, took some time to speak on changes he hopes to see for the town when it comes to the completion of projects, particularly those of a larger scale that may need more attention and work when compared to others.

Joy noted that the first Infrastructure and Public Works committee meeting of the year was held late January. He says significant discussion was held regarding large capital works projects, and the timelines for completing them.

“That includes things like paving, water and sewer work, and so on. One of the discussions was about completing that work earlier – getting work identified, planned out, and done earlier in the construction season.” Joy explained.

Joy made sure to note there are always some unavoidable situations that can cause delays in projects but said he would still like to see an overall change in the time frame it takes for projects to meet their completion date. Joy said this could possibly be accomplished by moving certain developments to earlier in the year when the opportunity presents itself.

“Last year we did a lot of paving in the town, but there were still six roads with paving projects that didn’t get done because of the lateness and the weather turning. They just couldn’t get done,” Joy said, stating that those projects have now been moved to hopefully be tackled in spring of 2019. In conjunction with that, Joy noted that there are some new paving projects that will be planned through available gas tax funding that would allow for additional upgrades to the town’s roads.

On top of this, there are some more projects that were allocated in the 2019 budget that include replacements and improvements to small sections of pavement on various roads. These are among some of the projects that Joy mentioned are to be moved in order to see an earlier completion date.

Joy said a new work request flow system that is currently under works may move things along faster.

The goal of the system is to help the town in identifying work that needs to be done, and ultimately aid in prioritizing what should be done immediately, and what can be attended to at a later date.

“The whole benefit of identifying this work early is to enter it in that system,” Joy said. “For people involved, such as councilors or others, if you see work that needs to be done, it can be entered into the work system by calling and making us aware of it. From there, we’ll be able to prioritize it, and hopefully get things moving a bit more quickly this year.”

The next meeting for the Public Works committee is scheduled for Tuesday, February 12.