TRYON – The Town of Tryon recently received estimates to replace a sewer line underneath Howard Street as well as to repave Howard totaling $133,000.

Tryon Town Council met April 18 and heard from town manager Zach Ollis that the estimate to replace the sewer line came in at $78,000. The repaving is estimated at $55,000, according to Ollis.

Ollis said the town has the $55,000 to repave the street budgeted but the town will have to find the $78,000 for the sewer line replacement. Ollis told council they can discuss the project and funding during budget work sessions, planned in May for the upcoming 2017-2018 budget.

The Howard Street repaving, beginning beside Stott’s Ford, is part of the town’s streetscape project which began last year with several downtown projects. The town borrowed $200,000 from its fund balance to pay for the streetscape projects, which has so far included new sidewalks in a few places along Trade Street, improvements to the Morris the horse area, and paving a portion of Peake Street.

The project began last summer with the first project being the Oak and Pacolet Street improvements to coincide with the renovation of Missildine’s, which has since opened shops. The Oak Street project was contracted for $81,814 and included adding a sidewalk down Oak Street on the Missildine’s side of the road and improvements to the intersection. The town also put in a new sidewalk along Trade Street from Missildine’s to the Tryon Theater to match existing sidewalks, which was contracted at $32,099.

Other projects already complete include the repaving of Peake Street between East Howard and Shepherd Street, which was contracted at $29,247.

The Howard Street paving was contracted at $52,604 and will include repaving from East Howard Street from North Trade to the Oak Street intersection.

Town officials have said since the beginning of discussing repaving a portion of East Howard that they would replace the sewer line prior to repaving so the town didn’t have to tear up new paving to replace the old line.

At one time the town had planned to not contract the sewer line replacement, but to do it in-house, which was last year estimated to cost between $10,000 and $12,000. Tryon officials said last year the problem with doing the line in-house was timing and decided town crews would not have time to do such a large project. Council then decided to contract out that portion of the project as well.

Tryon also approved surveying and engineering for new sidewalks to match the rest of downtown in March. The town approved a $21,000 bid for the surveying and engineering of new sidewalks between Palmer Street and Foothills Realty along Trade Street.