Relief in sight for Oleander
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

City council members have told City Manager Michael Kovacs to go ahead and sign a contract for $1,952,460 with Island Construction Co. to kick off work on the Oleander Street drainage project.

The project, the largest in the city's fiscal year 2006-07 budget, is designed to take storm water away from the area of Alister and Beach streets and from Oleander Street and Avenue A and route them to the harbor.

Because the council told Kovacs to find the money elsewhere in this year's budget, the project isn't being paid for as part of the bond package voters approved in November, although those projects all involve streets or drainage or both. In making the decision, council members said the Oleander Street project is important enough to proceed with instead of waiting for the election.

Permitting for the part of the project that will be in the water was applied for in December and bids were let in January. Because of the short time to make plans available to bidders, deadline for bids was extended from Feb. 13 to Feb. 27.

The package - including sidewalks on Oleander, which doesn't now have them - was estimated at $2.3 million.

Nueces County Water Control and Improvement District 4 is expected at the same time to relocate a water line along Oleander Street, Kovacs told the council.