The City of Williamsport will be able to get a construction team to pave over two brick streets avoiding disturbing a third bricked street location near Memorial Park.

City Council on first reading approved measures that will allow paving over bricks on First Street between Campbell and Walnut streets and Wayne Avenue between West Fourth Street and Hillside Avenue that runs on the east side of Jackson Primary School. It will not pave bricks at Oliver, Beeber and West Fourth streets at the K-shaped intersection near Memorial Park.

“We talked about this at the committee meeting on Tuesday and there were very understandable reasons for two of those brick streets,” Council President Eric Beiter said.

Number one being the one by Jackson Primary School with buses, plowing is done in the wintertime and making sure that it’s salted because snow runoff happens then it freezes at night.

“We don’t want anybody to slip and fall when they’re trying to cross the street there,” he said.

Obviously, the bricks create a bit of a trip hazard as well for kids trying to go back-and-forth and also people picking them up from school.

On First Street between Campbell and Walnut streets that, believe it or not, has a lot of industrial traffic that goes down back-and-forth, Beiter said. That’s down behind where Wawa and Chick-fil-A are. There are a couple industries there but also the recycler that has an entryway to the rear to the west side of their facility.

Engineer Bill Scott said the cost estimate to totally reconstruct that section of First Street is near $500,000, while putting blacktop on it is closer to $70,000. The asphalt lifespan is about 20 years, he said.

The amendment to the ordinance was approved 5-2 with Councilmen Jon Mackey and Jonah Milliken opposed.

Council approved a two-year lease agreement between Major League Baseball and the city for use of Journey Bank Park at Historic Bowman Field. MLB has the annual Little League Classic game, a regulation season game performed before a nationwide television audience and live before the Little Leaguers and their families each August. The Williamsport-Lycoming Chamber of Commerce agreed to provide a contribution toward the cost of providing public safety protection at these games in an agreement warmly received by the council and administration.