SALEM Wal-Mart construction to begin in summer

By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Construction is expected to start this summer on a 183,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store on the city's east side.
Cleveland Contracting of Cleveland has been hired to build the store on land just south of East State Street and east of Cunningham Road, Mayor Larry DeJane told city council Tuesday.
Construction company representatives who visited city officials late last week said Wal-Mart wants the store to be finished by early December, DeJane related.
The project's estimated cost is about $12 million.
Site preparation for the store is expected to begin in the next few weeks, DeJane said.
He added that he's excited about the prospect of construction starting. Talk of a Wal-Mart being built in Salem has been ongoing since January 1996.
Separate project: Word of a contractor being hired to build the store comes as work begins on a separate, $1.2 million project to improve traffic flow and safety along East State Street, just west of the store site.
The state is putting up about $765,000 for the job, which will take about six months to complete. The city is paying for the rest of the undertaking.
Council authorized the city utilities commission to find and hire a firm to design a sewage pumping station to serve the area where the store is being built.
Cost of the pumping station, which helps deliver sewage to the city's treatment plant, is estimated at about $550,000.
Council also authorized the utilities commission to find and hire an engineering firm to design a sewer replacement project along Aetna Street between Homewood Avenue and South Lincoln Avenue.
The sewer already in place in that area has deteriorated, necessitating replacement. The project is estimated at about $51,000.
The city is borrowing money to pay for the pumping station and the Aetna Street sewer replacement.
leigh@vindy.com