By Don Rush

It’s been nearly two months of dust and heavy machinery working in Oxford Village, but work on Dennison and Hudson streets is all but completed.

According to Village Manager Joe Madore this week the company hired to replace four-inch water mains and resurface the streets, Waldorf & Sons of Mount Morris, should be out boring the streets and finding manhole covers – then the project will be completed.

The $650,000 project was started in June by tearing up the old streets. Madore said the project was spurred by changes to the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act of 2018, mandating communities replace their lead-based water service lines by 2041 with water suppliers required to change at least five percent of their lead service pipes per year. The old pipes were replaced with ductile iron mains, copper connections and cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) service lines.

Oxford used about $300,000 of the $380,000 in funds received from theAmerican Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Madore was expected to present to council a plan to replace the four-inch water mains and resurface Park Street from Pontiac to Mechanic streets.