Promised road repairs continue to be postponed

Road repairs around campus will soon be under way. After constant complaints from students and guests about the street conditions, plans have finally been made to fix the problem. Tentatively, the first project should start after Homecoming on Oct 13.

"The road repairs project is in progress," said Richard Norton, assistant vice president of physical plant administration. "We have a contractor and are working on getting everything officially signed."

The first project will include repairing L.W. Minor Street in front of University Village, T.J. Solomon Street in front of the Hobart Thomas Taylor building and O.J. Thomas Street by the Billy Nicks building. Speed bumps will also be added on Solomon Street.

"There is a big problem with speeding in front of Hobart, so we plan to take care of that with the speed humps," Norton said.

Sidewalks will be repaired around the athletic building as well. The project is projected to cost the university about $583,000.

The Student Government Association met with Vice President for Administration and Auxiliary Services and interim Athletic Director Fred Washington during the spring '08 semester to set plans for the repairs.

"Fred Washington told me they were working on two projects and the first would start in the summertime and be completed by the fall," said former parking services senator and senior agriculture economics major Lionel Mosby Jr. "They said summer school students would be moved to Phase III to minimize disruptions and to make sure the project was finished."

A problem SGA is having with the project is that they promised students that the repairs would be completed by the new school year and they were not. Instead, pot holes have been temporarily filled.

"Students are becoming more restless and there is more damage to cars," said SGA President Johnie L. Jones III. "In a psychological sense, there's a wane of student appreciation for the campus."

According to Norton, however, the project was not intentionally postponed.

"There are a lot of things that have to be taken care of. We had to bid projects out, do a survey, and run cameras through the drainage system," said Norton.

Norton said that in order to do a great job and protect the university, things like that take time. In the meantime, the student body and its leaders are confused about why things have been delayed, and why they were not notified.

"I'm pleased that we have been given a start date for the project, so that we can keep the "powers that be" accountable to either follow through on the statements made or give reasons as to why further delays must take place," said Jones.