Hamlet’s plans to rebuild a portion of Starke Street this month are largely dependent on the weather. Plans call for the road to be rebuilt from Plymouth Street north to U.S. 30, with drainage improvements and a new sidewalk along the west side of the road. The work is scheduled to take place the last week of the month, to coincide with spring break at Oregon-Davis Schools.
Engineer Lee Nagai told the town council last week the paving schedule will depend on when the weather warms up. But he says Starke County still hasn’t gotten around to upgrading a culvert beneath Starke Street. “The county drainage board and the surveyor were supposed to get that done beforehand,” he explained. “In fact, it needs to get done beforehand, and I think they would’ve been doing it this week, if they hadn’t have had a couple of water issues and flooding.”
There were also concerns about impacting traffic heading to the Starke County Co-Op, but town officials say a slight delay in the project wouldn’t have much of an effect, since the heaviest traffic isn’t until harvest time.
