A Burgess & Niple artist’s rendering of Main Street based on a site photograph by John Dingo Photography.
By Art Hunter

The Batavia Village Council is inviting public comment on its plans to redesign East Main Street and rebuild South Second and North Fourth streets.

The council will meet in special session at 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21 in council chambers to take public comments on the project.

“We’re going to take public input before we begin the design,” village administrator Dennis Nichols said. “We’ve invited the public and property owners to come to a meeting to get their ideas.”

Some of the features which are being considered for the East Main Street redesign include widened sidewalks and a median with trees or bushes. Travel lanes would need to be reduced from four to two in order to accommodate the proposed changes.

Council voted Feb. 4 to approve a $241,000 contract with the engineering firm of Burgess and Niple to do the design and engineering.

After the Feb. 21 meeting, project engineers Burgess and Niple will begin work on preliminary engineering drawings for the project.

Nichols said that it is hoped that the project will be designed and ready to be put out for bids by the end of June.

“We’d like to award contracts in July and start construction as soon as possible,” Nichols said.

He said that the project should be finished in May of 2014.

The project is expected to cost approximately $4.8 million.

To pay for the project the village anticipates taking out 2.5 million in bonds. Nichols said that $989,000 will come from the Ohio Public Works Commission in the form of a grant, and that $1.35 million will come in the form of a OPWC loan.