ORANGE PARK – The Town Council approved an agreement to authorize the Kingsley Avenue Water Main Improvement Project and more during its meeting on Tuesday night.

The wide-ranging impacts of necessary infrastructure ae ever-important to the town’s future has been a hot topic lately. Sewers also were discussed at the council’s meeting on Feb. 9.

Vice mayor Alan Watt said his pressing concerns are to have the project completed promptly, especially with the next project that will take place on the road, which is a milling and resurfacing of the road, which Florida Department of Transportation will complete.

“It is really bad, and honestly, it should have been done years ago. We have a 2-inch galvanized steel main. It should be a much bigger line, and it is so corroded that if we can’t get this thing done before they repave the street, it’s going to be an incredibly expensive mess. It’s in really, really, bad shape, so we need to move this on and get this started,” he said.

That’s precisely what the council did moments later, the motion passing unanimously, 5-0.

Before the vice mayor’s comments, public works director Kyle Croce reiterated the importance of completing the big infrastructure project on time.

“We really need to get that done,” Croce said.

Council also approved a second reading of an ordinance updating a code prohibiting certain activities in the public right-of-way.

“This is a good thing for us. I don’t know if everyone understands what this is about,” Mayor Randy Anderson said.

Anderson was referring to illegal panhandling, which has become a problem in town.

It’s a problem at busy highway medians at the intersection of U.S. Highway 17 and Interstate 295, which serves as a mode of transportation for Orange Park and further interconnects the bloodstream of the entire Northeastern Florida area between Clay, Duval and St. John’s counties.

Between 53,500 and 84,000 cars use U.S. 17 in Orange Park daily.

“This is about panhandling. We’ve had it under control, and some of the rules have changed, so we have a new ordinance that we’re putting in place,” said Anderson.

The motion passed, 5-0.

Council will meet again on March 7.