By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— There have long been discussions in Pelham concerning the safety of Bearden Road and the construction of a sidewalk down the hill outside of Pelham High School.

The sidewalk project will shortly begin as Chris Cousins, president of Municipal Consultants, Inc., announced that he would like to advertise the utility portion of the project work next week at the Jan. 21 City Council meeting.

“That is great news,” said Pelham Mayor Gary Waters.

Cousins gave a proposed bid date of Feb. 17 for the project.

As of the morning of Jan. 21, Cousins also told the City Council that the letting date for the sidewalk had been backed up from April to March 25.

‘That kind of puts everything, construction wise, in the summer period,” Cousins said. “School should be out.”

Final plans for the sidewalk project were submitted to ALDOT Jan.21, and a representative said that projects with ALDOT typically take about 60 days to award the contract and get ready for construction.

He added that the city can also choose to request an early reward, which would cut the time down to 30-45 days. Construction should be ready to begin when school lets out for summer.

‘The sidewalk going down the hill is not only a safety project, it is not only a convenience project for our area but it is also the first step in the bigger project we are talking about, which is the trail system that would run all the way over to OMSP,” said City Council President Rick Hayes.