City workers will repair about 26 miles of alleys across Columbus in 2017.



Columbus City Council approved about $1.5 million for “alley surface treatment” on Monday night. City workers have identified the worst strips of pavement running behind and between homes and businesses and now plan to perform maintenance on the worst alleys.



City workers have a running list of alleys that they have graded to determine which ones should be treated first, Councilman Shannon G. Hardin said.



The city does not hire outside contractors for alley maintenance, said Jeff Ortega, assistant director in the Department of Public Service. Instead, it uses workers in its Division of Infrastructure Management to handle the upkeep.



Those workers will cut back brush, run a street sweeper over the alley, fill holes and then roll the entire alley with a tar-like emulsion, he said. Columbus is planning to touch alleys across the city, including groups of alleys on the North Side, Near East Side and South Side, among others.



About $800,000 of the cost will pay for labor, and another $550,000 will be used to purchase materials. The remaining $150,000 will go toward tipping fees at the county landfill.



Alley treatments will begin in June, Ortega said. All of the work is weather dependent.



Ortega said this year’s plan is similar to others in the recent past. The city spends about $1.5 million a year on alley upkeep.



Since 2012, the city has treated about 169 miles of alley. Last year, city workers fixed about 23.4 alley miles.



Street maintenance supervisors drive every strip of alley in the city each year to determine which areas are in most need of upkeep. They look for potholes and drainage problems to determine which alleys are treated, Ortega said.



“The need will typically outstrip the available funds,” he said. “Some alleys will need more work than others.”



The council also approved a 10-year, 75 percent property tax abatement worth about $1 million for a real estate holding company that plans to build a 100,000-square-foot office and warehouse on vacant land at Crosswind Drive on the Far West Side.



Jana Holdings LLC will spend about $4.9 million to build and furnish the new building. It then would lease the building to Acorn Distributors Inc., which distributes disposable paper products, janitorial and food-service supplies.



Acorn would relocate its entire operation from 324 E. 2nd Avenue to the new facility at Crosswind. Acorn Vice President Al Wachter owns Jana Holdings.



In exchange for the tax break, Acorn must retain 42 full-time jobs totaling about $2.1 million in payroll and create 12 new ones with payroll worth about $540,000. Workers in the new jobs will earn between $32,000 and $56,000.

South-Western City Schools would continue to get about $6,500 per year in property taxes during the 10-year abatement, but about $32,000 annually afterwards.



rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan