By Frederic Lee

 Staff writer

It could take up to a year for the dust and loose stones on Main Street to clear away, according to Director of Planning, Zoning and Public Works William Saunders.

Meanwhile, there are no current plans to clean up the street, but the Town Council is exploring those options, according to Mayor Carter Williams. 

The recent Main Street resurfacing project, viewed by many residents to have some serious problems, was discussed Monday by the Smithfield Town Council finance committee. 

Under discussion were payments to be made to the contractor that did the work, Blair Brothers. {mprestriction ids=”1,2,3,4,5,6″}

Payments were linked to three aspects of the resurfacing project—the milling of the original road down to the base layer, the crosswalk implementation and the chip-and-seal final layer.

While the committee agreed that the milling work payment be paid for in full, $93,469, payment for the crosswalks will be held until work on those are fixed. Williams said the crosswalks have an uneven appearance and that they will be corrected after the holidays. The full payment for the crosswalks, if corrected, is estimated at $73,464.

The committee then decided to pay about 75 percent of the chip-and-seal payment, or $29,000, and then wait a month or two before paying the remainder in order to see if conditions have improved on their own, or if other chip-and-seal work must be done. The bill for the layer of tar and pebbles is $38,627.   

The total payment for the milling plus about 75 percent of the chip-and-seal layer is $122,469.  {/mprestriction}