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Tracy Street reconstruction project moves forward

Photo by Jessica Williams.

The Markle Town Council has taken the next step in the Tracy Street project - a complete reconstruction of the street, which has been in the works for the last five or so years - on Wednesday night, May 19.

An 80-20 Indiana Department of Transportation grant application was approved during the meeting.

David Harvey of Fleis and Vandenbrink, an engineering firm based in Fort Wayne, was on hand to briefly review the project for the council and guide them through some application changes, such as identifying which funds will be tapped into for the town's share.

The project, which is expected to get under way in May 2013, will cost about $1.6 million. Harvey explained the 20 percent match that Markle must pay is approximately $322,000 and is due at the time the project is deemed ready to begin.

The street, at a length of 2,760 feet, is in Wells County and connects Ind.-116 to US 224.

Among the reconstruction project specifics are a sidewalk addition to the west side from Ind.-116 to Countryside Drive, and a third lane to handle truck traffic off of US 224 from the Wayne Metal plant.

The plant also hopes to add a driveway that is accessible from Tracy Street and use Countryside Drive for traffic. There will be deceleration lanes off of the two highways and right-of-way spaces for this truck traffic as well.

Council Vice President Tamra Boucher suggested the council identify the General Fund, Rainy Day Fund, CEDIT and the Local Road and Street Fund as those that could be used for Markle's 20 percent share.

"I think we'd be wise to list more than one fund in there (the proposal) just so we have the ability to do what we need to do," she said, adding the town is not committed to use all of those funds.

"We've been talking about this for a long time and it's excited to finally be doing something with it, and making some progress," Boucher added at the end of the discussion.