The Oak Ridge North City Council approved payments on final design plans for the Robinson Road expansion project, considered moving forward on several civic renovation projects and updated its sex offender regulations to match state law at its regular meeting Monday night. The council also approved a contract for the use of the city pool at Marilyn Edgar Park by a local swim team, and it authorized the city municipal building for use as a polling place in the May general election. To view the full agenda packet from the council meeting, click here. Renovations and development Before moving on to his full update on the Robinson Road project, Joe Sherwin, the city's director of public works and engineering, discussed the need to repair the deck at the city pool ahead of its opening later in spring. Sherwin said the deck has deteriorated to the point of being a “safety issue,” but after two rounds of bidding the city hadn’t found a contractor to take on the resurfacing work. Citing the concern for public safety, the council members unanimously agreed to bypass any further bidding, allowing Sherwin to select a vendor and bring a price quote for the work to the council. Later in the session, Sherwin returned to present the council with three invoices from RPS Klotz Associates for their planning work on the Robinson Road project. The invoices, covering RPS work from October through December, totaled $210,000 and represent 95 percent completion of the current planning phase. The council approved paying RPS $210,000 and also cleared the payment of an additional $70,000 if necessary for previous design work that Sherwin could not confirm had been already paid. The total sum of $280,000 fits within the $350,000 budgeted by the city for the current phase of the project, he said. "There hasn’t been a lot of movement on Robinson Road [recently],” Sherwin said. He said the city continues right of way purchase negotiations with several properties along the project route and he hopes to complete that process over the coming weeks. Director of Economic Development Heather Neeley brought a pair of smaller development items before the council as well. Neeley relayed the city Economic Development Corporation’s plans to investigate the costs of renovating the restroom facility at Marilyn Edgar Park, and installing an iron gate structure at the entrance to Teddy Bear Park on Robinson Road to replace the existing chain barrier. The council supported the EDC seeking price quotes for both projects. Other business Neeley also submitted a finalized contract covering the Oak Ridge Otters youth swim team’s usage of the city pool during its 2019 season. The contract allows the Otters to use the pool for a total of 225 hours from April through August for a total of $13,500 in usage, maintenance and operations fees. The Otters also get regular evening-only use through June 1 as well as four specific dates for evening use between June 4 and 14. Following discussion of Neeley and Sherwin’s agenda items, the council unanimously approved the use of the city municipal building as a polling place for the May general election. Spring Creek Greenway Nature Center, which had previously been used as a polling place, will not be available until late summer due to ongoing renovations resulting from damage sustained in Hurricane Harvey. Finally, the council briefly reviewed and unanimously approved an ordinance regarding limitations on sex offenders living in the city. Oak Ridge North established its sex offender regulations in 2015. Texas state law has since changed, prompting the city to update its own code. The new regulation replaces the previous version, establishing a maximum 1,000-foot limit between a sex offender’s permanent residence and any child safety zone such as a school, playground, daycare facility or youth center.