Mayor Scott Madon provided an update on the Courthouse Square project during Monday’s Pineville City Council meeting. Work has progressed as all of the old pavement has been removed and the streets could have a base layer of asphalt in place by next week.

“Wednesday night after the stores close on Pine Street they are going to dig down like they have the other streets around the square to get them all on the same level,” Madon said. “They’re also going to put down gravel that night, they’re going to work all night. The plan is to get all of the base gravel in this week and next week lay down the first base of asphalt.”

He said that will hopefully allow contractors to open up Walnut Street, Kentucky Avenue and Pine Street for traffic.

“Virginia Avenue probably won’t be opened up until we get it up and going with the brick and everything,” Madon said. “That’s the plan. They kind of veered off the plan where we were only going to do two streets at once, but when they were able to take that dirt down they went ahead with it — They can’t leave it like that. The businesses have been very cooperative so far but we’ve got to get it opened back up for them as soon as possible.”

Another goal for this week is get all of the sidewalks around the courthouse poured.

“They’ve got to have that handicapped access back open for the driver’s license office and for the early voting starting this week with the election coming up,” Madon said. “Hopefully, and I think they will be able to, pour the soft side (Tuesday) and form up around the fountain and on the Virginia Avenue side. They will probably pour that on Wednesday and then they can work on the Walnut Avenue side. If we get all of our sidewalks back this week it will be a big plus for us.”

In the meantime other contractors will continue working to put conduit in and haul away dirt while the concrete work is being done.

Madon said some change orders have already been necessary, and one that came up was putting in permanent white lines in the stone to mark parking spaces around the square.

“It’s about a $35,000 add to the project but we won’t have to go back and repaint them,” he said. “Now, they will get dirty and we’ll have to clean them sometimes but the white won’t fade away.”

The project also ran into a small problem with a water main that had to be replaced. A four to five hour job turned out to be a 14-hour job last Friday.

“That was an 80-year-old line that had almost completely coagulated — it was an 8-inch line that probably had a 2-inch opening in it, there was that much stuff in there,” Madon said. “I know it was a long day but that makes it much safer.”

They also added more valves to the water lines in town so part of it can be shut off without water being cut off to the whole square.

Madon again thanked everyone for their patience. He told the council members to let him know if they hear from someone who is having problems due to the construction.

“We’ll call the contractor and get those issues addressed as they come,” he said. “I’ve not seen that it’s really had a major effect. I know it’s an inconvenience but I hope people will still patronize our businesses while this is going on.”

Shannon Elliott gave an up to the council on the Innovative Approaches to Literacy grant and its partnership with the city for Read2Connect.

“The first project I want to tell you about is the alphabet word walk we have set up at the Veteran’s Park for smaller children who are learning to read and write,” she said.

Children can pick up passports at the park’s shelter and go through the walk recording the letters they find at each stop. The passport can then be taken to the public library where the children are given a swag bag. The walk is open starting Tuesday, October 15.

“Any business that is interested in adding swag to advertise their company, we would love to add that to the bags,” Elliott said. “They can contact me at Pineville School.”

A permanent story walk is coming to the park in Newtown, Elliott said. 18 posts have been installed that will each have a large page from a storybook that kids can read as they complete the walk.

“We will be changing that story out about every month. We hope to have between 10 and 12 stories per year,” she said.

The story walk will be kicked off on Friday with an Appalachian Night from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in partnership with Main Street Pineville. Vendors will be on hand and Main Street will be holding a Sip-n-Shop.

Work is also progressing on a history walk starting at the Read2Connect building. Students can find historic photos and learn more about Pineville’s history by using a QR code along the walk. Elliott said they hope to have that ready in the spring in time for the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival.

On Nov. 21 IAL is partnering with the Pineville PTO for a Storybook Christmas. They will be raffling off Christmas baskets and wreaths, Santa will be on hand for pictures along with other activities.

Johnna Callebs, during her Main Street update, added that the Newtown Park now has a brand new zip line for the kids to enjoy and thanked IAL and Pineville Schools for working with Main Street for Friday’s Appalachian Night.

She said Trunk or Treat is scheduled for Sunday, October 27 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“What we’ve talked about doing is starting at Brooks-Durham Funeral Home (on Kentucky Avenue) and going down to the Nazarene Church and having that blocked off,” she said. “The Police Department will block off Oak Street to traffic and people will be able to park in the city parking lot.”

Upcoming events include a concert by Nicholas Jamerson on Nov. 23 at the Bell Theater; Nov. 30 is Small Business Saturday and the annual Lighting of the Starr is scheduled for Dec. 1.

“We’re going to try to do the Lighting of the Star at the Bell Theater but we’ll have to see how far along thing are (with the construction),” Callebs said.

Madon it could be moved down to Presbyterian Field so those attending could see the star, but that would take it further away from the Christmas Tree.

In other business, the council:

— approved the first reading of an ordinance annexing U.S. 25E to the Pineville Water Plant. The action was approved by the council two years ago and the ordinance is simply required to be on the books to be submitted to the state.

“This is nothing new, it was approved two years ago. We’re just following up with some paper work because annexation was put on hold by the legislature,,” Madon said. “I know people get nervous whenever they start hearing the word annexation.”

— adopted a resolution defining the city road system. No changes were made to the list of city’s roads that is regularly sent to the Cumberland Valley Area Development District. Council member Patricia Bingham explained the resolution legally tags the roads in the city so they are eligible for grant funds.

— approved appointing L.J. Rose and Haley Patterson to the Main Street Board to replace Scottie Brown and Brittany Ralston.

— Hours for Trick-or-Treat in Pineville were set for 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 31.