Pictured is Persell Middle School last winter, back when the city council first began discussing the possibility of reinstalling the guard rail that was taken out of the area following the renovations of Baker Street. P-J file photo

Work to reinstall a guard rail outside Persell Middle School could begin once school ends in June – though there is still work to be done.

Since the end of last year, reinstalling a guard rail that used to sit outside at the edge of Persell Middle School, which was removed following the renovations of Baker Street, has been a topic of concern for some city council members. An update as to where that project currently stands was given at a recent City Council meeting.

During that meeting, Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large and Public Safety Committee chairman,, said Councilman Joe Paterniti, R-Ward 4, brought the project up again during the committee’s meeting prior to the council’s work session.

“School is ending here shortly, and there were meetings about it, discussions, and a drastic increase in cost on it to remove sidewalks and everything else,” Russell said. “And I think Councilman Paterniti, I don’t speak for him, but he wanted to know what the status of that was. I’d like to see it done for the fall of this year when inclement weather starts to come again.”

Mark Roetzer, city public works director, said they recently got the price back for the concrete work and have put the bid out to do the guard rail. They received no bids back to do the guard rail, which Roetzer said he expected was because it was such a small section of the area.

“So we reached out to the county,” Roetzer said. “They will sometimes do that work. We have not heard back yet if they’re able to do that for us.”

Additionally, Roetzer said they will make a plan if the county cannot help to come up with another solution. He said the plan has been to not start that project until school is out, due to the disturbance it will cause in that intersection.

Paterniti asked if the plan was still to work with the school to pay for part of the project, which Roetzer said was still the case as far as he knew.

“The conversations I’ve had with the superintendent, he’s always been very supportive of working with the city on projects,” Russell said. “He didn’t throw the number out to be half, but he did say to me that he’s always welcome to work with us and see what we would do, and I know the mayor has had some productive conversations with him and Mark. So, hopefully we can get this done before the winter starts again.”