John Day City Manager Nick Green

John Day plans to complete road projects and provide additional parking this year.

Parking lots at city hall, the former Wright Chevrolet lot and the Seventh Street Complex, along with Charolais Heights intersection improvements and Fourth Avenue repairs, were discussed during the city council meeting Feb. 18.

“We are going to work through the design for the city hall parking and parking at the former Wright Chevrolet, and we are going to try and budget for those parking areas to be improved starting next fiscal year, sometime after July,” John Day City Manager Nick Green said.

Through the Integrated Park System Grant, paving the Seventh Street Complex parking area will be completely funded and will be completed in the summer, Green said.

For the Charolais Heights intersection, surveyors and engineers are going to start marking, and the city will complete any acquisitions needed to start construction in the summer, he said. The improvements will be partially funded by the $100,000 Small City Allotment grant from Oregon Department of Transportation.

The five requests for proposal will go out later this month, and bids will be due in mid-March, according to the meeting agenda.

John Day City Councilor Elliot Sky asked what the design was for the Charolais Heights intersection improvements.

“The Charolais Heights road will curve tighter and come across Boulder Lane so they are directly across from each other and create what would be a four-way stop, except we are removing the stop sign at Valley View,” Green said. “It would just be stops for the intersection of Charolais and Boulder, and Valley View would be a through street, and Davis Creek would curve back to create more separation between those two roads.”

Elevation will also be addressed by creating a continuous slope traveling up Valley View, Green said.

The council also discussed the timeline for Highway 395 South sidewalk improvements, for which final design acceptance is scheduled in May, Green said. Bid opening is planned for March 11, 2021, with construction starting that year.

John Day City Councilor Steve Schuette asked Green if the city still plans to install restrooms at the city hall parking area and former Wright Chevrolet lot.

“We are going to stub utilities for restrooms, but I am not going to try to squeeze that (restrooms) into the budget,” Green said. “If we can get it regraded and the parking open, that will be the first step. Then we can put the restrooms in later.”

In other city council news:

• The council approved the professional services agreement between the city of John Day and Flagline Engineering. Flagline Engineering will review plans as a second set of eyes on the wastewater treatment plant project, Green said. The estimated cost is $18,000.

According to the agenda, Anderson Perry engineers will attend the city council meeting on Feb. 25 to review the preliminary engineering report for the facility design.

• The city discussed the 2020 Veterans and War Memorials grant to help fund a life-sized sculpture at the northwest section of Davis Creek Park. There are also plans to provide perimeter lighting for the sculpture at night. The city council approved the scope of the grant request and plan. The idea and design of the sculpture was presented to Green by Steven Baldwin, who works for Grant County Veteran Services.