SUMMERDALE - There are multiple projects going on within the town of Summerdale. The town is working with Civil Southeast on the majority of these projects, and while some are just beginning, others have been in the works for a while.

The newest project discussed is a resurfacing project. Roads to be resurfaced include SW 4th Street, W Hamm Avenue and NE 5th Street.

“Last month, councilwoman Mary Carolyn [McDaniel] and I took golf carts and rode around looking for some real important issues that need to be addressed,” said Mayor David Wilson. “You know we had applied for these grants to pave most all of the streets that were in Summerdale, and we’ve been denied those grants … So we chose the worst streets in town at the moment and we got back and started looking at some of our funds that we have and how we can address that. We also have a bid program with South Alabama Regional Planning Commission, we had talked about asphalt has been bid out at a reduced price.”

Alan Killen with Civil Southwest solicited bids, with the low bidder being Asphalt Services, the same company working on the town’s new tennis courts. Labor came in at $24,320, and the estimated cost for approximately 600 tons of asphalt was $37,000. The town council voted to approve the bid for Asphalt Services and to purchase asphalt from the bid list during the September council. The project should begin relatively quickly, said Wilson.

Another fairly recent project the town council is considering is for a potential train-themed playground that would be located at the Splash Park. The project would be designed and constructed by GameTime, the company that has created playgrounds for other local municipalities including Spanish Fort and Gulf Shores. The turnkey price for the project is approximately $150,000, with $48,000 of the cost being paid for as part of a grant program offered by GameTime, leaving just south of $105,000 to be paid by the town. The project would include two separate playgrounds, one designed for children under the age of 5 and one for children ages 5 - 12. No final decision has been announced on the project.

Another project the town has been anticipating for a while is sidewalk improvements being paid for with monies from a TAP grant. The Town of Summerdale was awarded a $400,000 TAP grant from ALDOT in summer 2020. The TAP grant program is to give municipalities the ability to provide transportation alternatives for connectivity. There’s an 80/20 match involved, and the town’s portion will be spread out over the next few years.

The proposed sidewalks include W Lee Avenue, 2nd Street, 4th Street, W Broadway Avenue, Hamm Avenue, and NW 1st Street going out to the new Miracle League Field. The overall project would connect the Miracle League, the Community Center, the Summerdale Ball Park, the new tennis courts and the Summerdale Town Hall with the rest of the town’s existing sidewalks.

“Those plans have been submitted to ALDOT with all of their final revisions, and I anticipate authorization to bid that any day,” said Killen. “We’re hoping for a November bid date and to start construction in February 2022 … Maybe bid prices will drop a little bit by then because we’ve really seen them increase.”

A new project Civil Southeast is working on for Summerdale is the Scrap Tire Marketing Program. Summerdale council voted during the August meeting to allow Civil Southeast to apply for a grant that would cover the cost of adding rubber mulch to the playground behind the Community Center.

“We’ve got that application compiled, that’s been submitted to ADEM,” Killen said. “We’ve reached out to them and they have received it, they won’t tell us a net anticipated award date but said they have a lot of current projects going on and they’re not going to look at awarding new projects until some of those roll off the books. So we’ll follow up soon and see if they have anything for us on that.”

For more information, visit www.summerdaleal.com.