THATCHER — Work to widen 8th Street in Thatcher will begin again after the start of the new year.
At its most recent meeting, the Thatcher Town Council accepted the bid from WW Clyde civil general contractor for the 8th Street project in the amount of $4.77 million.
The project is to widen 8th Street between 20th and 1st avenues to three lanes, with curbs and sidewalks on both sides of the street. And the state of Arizona granted the town $4.5 million for the project.
So far, the town has spent about $600,000 on engineering and $200,000 on utility relocation, plus there’s another $300,000 still to be billed by Graham County Electric Cooperative, bringing total spent thus far to about $1.1 million.
“We found out that the railroad crossing will be quite a lot more than we initially anticipated,” said Town Manager Heath Brown. “That will be about $1.4 million; $1.3 million to $1.4 million.”
With the money spent, the higher cost of the railroad crossing and the general contractor’s bid, the town will have to use its cash reserves to complete the project. And that, along with ongoing expenses to replace one of the town’s electrical substations, could put the town in danger of exceeding its spending limit, which would mean hefty fines.
Brown said helping is about $1.7 million the town has earned in interest, which does not count against the expenditure limit. And the Co-op said it can delay some billing until after the start of the next fiscal year in July, when the spending limit starts over for the year.
And it’s possible that the 8th Street Project may not be fully complete before the end of the fiscal year, which could push some of that billing into the next fiscal year as well.
However, Brown said that means the town will likely not take on any additional major projects for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Work on 8th Street by WW Clyde should begin in February.
