BY PAUL MITCHELLNorth Country This Week

CANTON - Residents along the Miner Street Road and motorists will see a freshly-paved road to Taylor Park by Oct. 18 at the cost of nearly a half million dollars.

The Canton Town Board approved a low of $492,775 from Paverite, Copenhagen, N.Y. at a Thursday afternoon meeting.

A second bid from Heidelberg Materials came in at $521,531.25.

“Start up is to be determined by Paverite because they know there is a deadline.There is some pre-work that needs to be done that the highway department will be doing,” said Town Supervisor Mary Ann Ashley. “When we have a definite date, we will notify you and publicly post it.”

The road has been milled and had contracted with the St. Lawrence County Highway Department to perform the paving but county officials say that is no possible due to extensive emergency repair work from Hurricane Debby on Aug. 9.

The town agreed to put the job out to bid with a requirement to complete the work this paving season. 

The paving phase of the Miner Street Road project is just one of the many challenges the town council has faced.

Once completed, a stretch of the Miner Street Road from the village limits to Taylor Park will have two 10-foot driving lanes and mainly two 3-foot shoulders for pedestrian and bicycle use. That decision was made by the Canton Town Board at a special meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 4.

Original plans called for two 10-foot travel lanes and two 5-foot pedestrian and bicycling lanes. But once construction got underway, it was determined this roadway was not wide enough to accommodate these specs.