The Peru City Council approved a $690,818 bid to Universal Asphalt and Excavating to resurface between 20 and 22 blocks of city streets in the coming year.

The winning bid came in around $60,000 lower than the engineer’s estimate and will resurface areas of town, such as 27th and 26th Streets, East of North Peoria Street, 10th Street from Fulton to Putnam streets, among others.

City Engineer Eric Carls estimates the program will be under way by the end of May and completed by the end of August.

Aside from resurfacing roads, the city also approved a bid from Illinois Valley Excavating in the amount of $49,940 for the demolition of five properties. Four are now under the city’s ownership and one with a court order for demolition.

“We’ve been working pretty hard through my office along with Attorney Scott Schweickert in obtaining a number of blighted residential properties in the city of Peru,” Carls said.

The properties that will be demolished will be a part of cleaning up structures in the city no longer in use to make way for any future developments. Once demolition is completed, the city plans to put the properties for bid sometime in the near future.

Many aldermen mentioned this bid approval was a long time coming as the city has been working on acquiring these properties for over a year.

Lastly the city approved the construction of a storage garage to be located at Veterans Park. The bid was awarded to Marten Portable Buildings in the amount of $11,603.

The storage garage will be 14-by-32 feet and will be driftwood in color with a taupe metal roof. It also will be fixed with a 9-by-7 feet insulated garage door.