Athens City Council unanimously voted for a resolution to appropriate as much as $72,000 for the restoration of the Houston Memorial Library.

“The north and east sides of the home have not been restored. We have already had the city workers put in a handicapped ramp on that north side, so we want to get it restored and get the handicapped entrance up to ADA compliance and get a cover for it,” said Anita Raby, board of directors member. “Then we’ll move around and do the front. We can take off the handicap ramp that is a concrete ramp, not period appropriate, of course, comes up to a concrete porch, not period appropriate, so we’re really excited about getting this going.”

The board of directors anticipates the restoration to start in April with Tom Little Construction Company performing the restoration.

The council unanimously voted for a resolution to authorize the mayor to enter into an agreement with Miller and Miller Construction to extend sidewalks along Elm Street and install a pedestrian bridge over Swan Creek.

They unanimously voted for a resolution to authorize the mayor to enter into an agreement with Morell Engineering for the construction, engineering and inspection services for the sidewalk and the Swan Creek pedestrian bridge.

The estimated cost of the project is $963,500. Federal tax funds of $640,000 were awarded for the project. The city’s original match of $160,000 and the remaining $163,500 overage will come from the capital infrastructure fund.

The construction, engineering and inspection budget $95,975 and will come from the capital infrastructure fund.

“We applied for this grant and were awarded the maximum amount from the Department of Transportation that they could award.”

“The rest of this resolution finishes up the missing amount for that bid,” said city engineer Michael Griffin. “As you all are aware, pricing on materials is changing daily, so this one is up there and pretty paramount to go ahead, and if we want to go ahead and do this, this would be the time, as we’ve been told that the pricing will change periodically.”

The sidewalk would go from Whitt’s down to the west past Elkton, then would run east across Swan Creek with a pedestrian bridge.