The most pressing related business will most likely be the award of bid for the contractor to handle the street bond project, which aims to renovate many of the downtown area's roadways.

“This will be the final project from the 2006 bond election the citizens approved. In this project we plan to repave about 42 blocks of city streets, along Main Street, Scurry Street and the downtown area,” Davis told the council during his last meeting with the group. “With that project we'll be doing various sidewalk improvements, as well as ADA curb ramps, and if we're able to do all of the curb ramps we have in this project, it will be right at 100 ramps that will be installed. It also includes street-scape improvements, at least as much as the budget will allow.”

Davis said the effort has been broken up into several alternative projects, allowing the city to take the bond project as far as its budget will carry it.

“We anticipate having about $7.6 million available for construction,” said Davis. “We're hoping that will give us enough to do all the items in the bid package. We've broken it into several alternatives we'll be able to award as the budget allows.”

And while improvements to the rough and aging roadways in downtown Big Spring will certainly be embraced by local motorists, Davis said the project has the potential to be a pain-in-the-neck to residents during its 13-month construction time.

“Construction is expected to take approximately 13 months, so we're targeting April 1, 2010, as our completion date. This is probably going to be the most visible of the bond projects, and probably cause the most public inconvenience, so it could become the most vocal and most controversial. However, it's a project that's very much needed.”

Davis is also to discuss other ongoing bond projects, including the construction of the Roy Anderson Sports Complex, repairs to the Northside Elevated Reservoir and construction of an annex for the municipal animal control facility.

Also during Tuesday's meeting, the council is to consider joining a community wide, multi-agency project that would hire a grant writer to serve many of the local government entities.

The plan currently being considered by local agencies, according to County Judge Mark Barr, would call for the Big Spring Independent School District, Howard College, Howard County, the city of Big Spring and the Big Spring EDC to donate $20,000, and Coahoma ISD and Forsan ISD will donate $10,000 each.

Several other local agencies, including Howard County and Big Spring ISD, have recently shown their support for the position.

Barr said the grant writer would work for the agencies through the Texas Workforce Network, but would be dedicated to the agencies that are funding the endeavor.

“There are a lot of grants for education,” said Barr. “The education system in Texas is aimed at kids that are going to be going to college. As we all know, not everyone goes to college. There are things out there that people that don't go to college can do very successfully. One of the things the grant writer would be looking at is developing a program for these drop outs to learn a trade, like electricity and welding, or plumbing. We would work in conjunction with Howard College on this.

“The grant writer would be working for the Workforce (Network). They would have their office here in Big Spring and would exclusively be working for Howard County entities. We (the entities) would pay for her salary and for the office.”

The meeting will get under way at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the City Council Chambers, located at 307 E. Fourth Street.

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it