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VALLEY — The Valley City Council has approved a street resurfacing plan for the coming fiscal year. A contract in the amount of more than $3.6 million was approved for Chris Clark Grading & Paving to do the work, but not all 24 streets that are listed may be repaved in 2025. The action was taken at Thursday evening’s council meeting.

“The bids came in higher than we expected,” Mayor Leonard Riley said. “We will do as many as we can, but we may have to take some of the streets off the list. We will be giving Chris a list of the streets to do first, and we’ll go from there.”

The present list includes West Sears, Bland, Spring, 26th and 27th streets, Wilson Avenue, Fairview Drive, Rebel Road, the Farmers’ Market side of 59th Street, the reclamation of Brown Circle, Stanfield Road-Bennett Street, 22nd Avenue, 58th, 59th and 60th streets, the extension of 30th Street, Denson Street, the portion of LaFayette Street adjacent to Fairfax First Baptist Church, 14th Avenue, Mindy Lane, Ronald Avenue, Leta Lane, Summerhill Road and 33rd Street.

The council approved a four-item consent agenda. These included a request to allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages at the city-owned Lakeview Cabin for a family reunion that will be taking place there on Saturday, October 12th, amending the city budget to include a $100 insurance recovery for vehicle repair/maintenance, the acceptance of bids for three city-owned surplus vehicles – $850 offered by Dale Sewell for a 2016 Ford Explorer, $1,000 offered by Santiago Amezquita for a 2012 Ford Taurus and $1,550 offered by Henry Tucker for a 2012 Taurus.

Some surplus equipment from the Public Works Department also went to the high bidder. Charlie Barnes offered the high bid for a 60-inch zero turn mower ($2,000), Becky Simpkins for another 60-inch zero turn mower ($2,200) and Ricky Spruill for a 52-inch zero turn mower ($800).

Council Member Jim Clark asked the mayor to explain the bidding process for surplus equipment. Riley said when items such as police cars and other city vehicles, mowers and other Public Works equipment are being replaced with newer models, the city will accept sealed bids from individuals interested in purchasing the items that are no longer needed. These surplus items are listed on the city’s website. Interested parties are given a certain time period to enter a sealed bid. There’s a bid-opening day when city officials will open all the bids that have been received. The city-owned item is sold to the person making the highest bid. There have been instances where only one bid was received and that bidder walked away with a pretty good deal.