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Keokuk's Grand Ave. Months from Completion

The multi-million dollar reconstruction of Keokuk's Grand Avenue will be completed months later than the city and its residents anticipated.

The city had hoped for substantial completion of the roughly twelve blocks between Rand Park and Orleans Avenue by late 2013 and full completion by mid-2014.

Public Works Director Mark Bousselot says substantial completion would entail paving being finished and sidewalks being rebuilt while full completion would include landscaping and some curbing.

Chuck Betts used Thursday's city council meeting to find out where the project is at, since 2014 is less than six weeks away and no concrete has been poured.

Betts, who lives along Grand Avenue, said he and his neighbors just wanted to know what was going on because the city has not told them anything about the street.

Bousselot says it now appears that late spring or early summer is the target for substantial completion.

He told the city council that the project has been delayed because a subsequent sewer project has fallen behind schedule.  The city is building a structure to release storm-water over the bluff during heavy rain.

Bousselot says the company building that structure is being fined $500/working day for missing the deadline, with the fines beginning in mid-October.

He says the company working on Grand Avenue is hopeful some paving can get underway this week, if the weather holds and temperatures remain high enough.

Mayor Tom Marion encouraged any residents with questions to call city hall at (319) 524-2050.

Jason Parrott is a former reporter at Tri States Public Radio.