Annual street paving begins but concern arises on amount of work city can do

ZANESVILLE – The City of Zanesville’s annual street paving began this week. The city wants to address many streets that haven’t been resurfaced in nearly twenty-five years. The project is being funded by gas tax that has already been collected by the city.

“Nobody’s driving right now. So, if you go from having 70 some thousand dollars a month in gas tax revenue to something significantly lower, that’s going to affect how much we can get done. So, we’re trying to be good stewards with the public’s money and before awarding the next contract which is about $386,000, we’re going to make sure we actually have the money in the bank. We’ll have it in the bank by the time the project is completed,” Zanesville Mayor Don Mason said.

Mason encourages drivers to exercise patience and caution while paving projects are in progress on roads like Howard Street, Newark Road, and Blue Avenue.

“Right now, people are going to have the opportunity within a week to drive more and get out more and I like that except for we’re going to have to make sure that people are as patient driving as they have been patient sitting at home,” Mason said.

The paving project that is underway now is scheduled to be completed by July 1st.