FAIRMONT — One need not pave over history to make the ride smoother, Fairmont City Manager Travis Blosser told city council members last week.
With bids set to go out for a paving project for Fairmont’s streets downtown and East Side, one thoroughfare in particular will receive some historic attention, he said.
Sections of Adams Street, the city’s main drag, are showing bricks dating back to the city’s streetcar days, and Blosser and others prefer they not be paved over in the leveling work.
“Those will be saved and provided either to the city or the Marion County Museum for a future project,” he said during last Tuesday’s city council meeting. The bricks will be used for a project or commemoration of some sort honoring civic history, he said.
“People were concerned,” he said.
All the streets marked for paving are in actuality state roads maintained by West Virginia’s Division of Highways.
Those include Adams, Quincy and Jefferson streets downtown, and East Side’s heavily traveled Merchant Street on the other side of the Monongahela River.
In all, the DOH is responsible for 21 roadways that make up the downtown grid and greater Fairmont.
Bids are due to the state by mid-July, the city manager said, with all paving set to be complete by fall.
Look for portions of Adams Street to also receive new storm drains, Blosser added.
Smooth pavement, the city manager said, only adds to infrastructure-quality of life.
“Our roads have been a washboard,” he said.
The city, meanwhile, was turned into a not-so-fun waterpark ride, Blosser said, during the torrential downpours and widespread flash-flooding that hit Father’s Day.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey, in response to the deluge, issued a disaster declaration for Marion County.
While property was lost, no injuries or deaths were reported, and Blosser praised everyone from first responders to concerned neighbors for that.
