Lee County awards bid for Lee High Acres street repairs

LEESBURG — Residents in the Lee High Acres neighborhood here will soon see long-awaited street repairs.

The Lee County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to contract with Albany-based Oxford Construction to repair and resurface several streets within the Lee High Acres subdivision. Oxford was one of three bids submitted to the county for the road work. Their bid came in at $263,585.

The decision to award the contract came after several board members voiced concerns regarding the possibility that streets could be torn up again if future sewer lines would need to be installed.

Lee County Utilities Authority Director Chris Boswell assured board members that none of the streets would need to be re-opened.

“I checked with Mr. Boswell several times, and he has assured me that the sewer lines are in place and once the roads are resurfaced, they will not need to be dug up again,” Commissioner Billy Mathis said.

Dennis Roland, chairman of the Lee board, said he too was told by Boswell that there would be no need to go back into the streets to install more sewer pipes.

County Commissioner Bill Williams said, “Boswell said there will be no more digging up roads. If more pipe work needs to be done, it will be in yards, not in the roads,” and fellow Commissioner Rick Muggridge added, “I spoke with Mr. Boswell about this matter this afternoon because I wanted to be certain before we awarded a bid to resurface the roads that all of the sewer pipes have been installed.”

Mathis initially brought his concerns about the Lee High Acres street conditions to the attention of fellow board members earlier this summer after receiving several calls from residents who said streets and yards had been torn up and not repaired.

“It was a mess,” Mathis said at the time.

Getting all of the sewer lines installed and post-project cleanup completed on time and to the satisfaction of Lee County officials has been an ongoing battle.

In July, a legal battle ensued, and Southern Trenchless, the Lake Park-based contractor hired to do the sewer project, agreed to pay Lee County Utilities $50,000 in damages. At that time, Southern Trenchless was given 30 days to complete the yard and gutter repairs or risk forfeiting another $50,000 of a final project payment.

That deadline has come and gone.

Commissioners say the street repairs had to wait until all of the yards and gutters were cleaned. Although that work has not been completed, county officials now say they will take it upon themselves to get the work done so street repairs can get underway as soon as possible.

Lee County Attorney Jimmy Skipper also is expected to send Southeastern Trenchless a letter expressing intent to withhold final payment because the work the company agreed to do within 30 days was not finished. Funds for damages and failure to repair yards and gutters in the Lee High Acres community, along with SPLOST funds, will be used for the street repairs.

Commissioners also agreed to accept bids for road resurfacing on Martindale Drive, Northhampton Road and Westfield Road and approved a $25,000 expenditure for purchasing four “gently used” Tahoe vehicles to replace four public safety reserve vehicles — two of which reportedly have more than 200,000 miles.

In other business, Muggridge asked fellow board members to consider looking at Grand Island near Ledo Road as a possible site for future recreation activities. County recreation is one of the items to be further discussed during the county’s final comprehensive planning session scheduled for Aug. 31 at 6 p.m.