Town Awarded Federal Grant for Sidewalks

The Town of Clayton has been awarded a $78,000 Federal Highway Administration grant to help build new sidewalks on four town streets.

The work will be added to the massive street renovation project that has been underway for the last few months. The town's portion of the sidewalk construction is $19,500, which will come from the bond issue for parks and streets approved by voters in 2008, bringing the total project cost to $97,500.

"This is a very important project," said Town Manager Steve Biggs, "and we're basically getting three to one on our bond funds in this instance."

The sidewalks will be installed along Smith, E. Horne, John and Compton Streets.

Work is nearing completion on the first phase of the bond-funded program bringing better streets and more sidewalks all over town.

The $850,000 Phase 1 work is already making travel around town much better, with repair and resurfacing of 32 blocks of streets, installation of 7,500-linear-feet of new concrete sidewalks, curb and storm drainage repairs and new traffic-calming work on Front Street.

The second phase--which includes streets that also need new water lines, sewer lines or storm drainage--will be tackled later.

The work is being financed through $3 million in bond money set aside for streets in the bond issue that also raised $4 million for parks.