Projects aim to boost jobs, city’s neighborhoods

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The projects have been in the works for some time. Thanks to low interest rates, Rochester may borrow up to $29.15 million to speed them along and, city officials hope, put people to work and improve neighborhoods.

The City Council will consider borrowing funding for a variety of the projects, which range from fountains at Manhattan Square Park and Riverside Cemetery roadwork to street improvements as part of the University of Rochester’s College Town project to replacing four elevators at the Sister Cities Garage.

City Council is scheduled to meet Dec. 18.

Mayor Thomas S. Richards said the projects have been approved, but were scheduled to be done down the road. In all, more than 300 jobs would be created.

The city can take advantage of unusually low interest rates for municipal borrowing because of its good credit rating, Richards said. That means work could begin in the next few months on certain projects, if the borrowing is OK’d.

“This will allow us to put people to work now rebuilding our infrastructure, demolishing vacant and dangerous houses and making improvements all over our city,” Richards said in a statement.

Here’s a partial list of the projects planned, according to city officials:

• Roadwork on Thurston Road, from Ravenwood Avenue to Brooks Avenue, would help boost the improvement of the commercial area.

• Extending streetscape work on La Avenida, or North Clinton Avenue from Avenue D to Norton Street, also would support neighborhood revitalization.

Work on Portland Avenue will improve traffic safety near Chapin Street and the Rochester General Hospital.

Many of the projects are nuts-and-bolts kinds of details, such as milling and resurfacing of neighborhood streets and repairing sidewalks.