City to seek funding to rebuild 320th Street
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GLENWOOD CITY — The Glenwood City Common Council gave its approval at it March 21 meeting for Cedar Corporation to begin the process to seek funds through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) to help rebuild 320th Street on the City’s east side.
320th Street runs between State Road 170 and County Road G and borders the west side of the Glenwood City School District. The road is heavily used to serve the Glenwood City Elementary and the district’s bus and maintenance garages as well as local travelers.
Greg Adams of Cedar Corporation was on hand to explain funding for 320th Street which would be applied for through the Wisconsin DOT Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
Adams told the council that $1.3 Billion is being funded through the DOT’s Surface Transportation Program of which 15 percent is earmarked for local, small community roads rather than the higher classification roads.
In looking at the City’s capital improvement plan, Adams said that the 320th Street project would be a “really good candidate” for this funding.
He also told the council that the funding process would have to run through a full-blown DOT format which includes all required studies, documentation with plans having to follow an exact format. Adams did note that engineering cost would be higher but everything on that project is effectively eligible because it pays for pavement, base reconstruction and drainage with the exception of sewer and water mains and laterals.
Adams noted that 80 percent of the cost would be covered by the DOT grant with 20 percent coming from the local source.
He said for the City to have the engineering cost put into the grant as an eligible expense it would have to do a request for statement of qualifications to briefly describe the project, send it out to consultants and have them reply back with their qualifications. The City could then select a consultant based on a scoring criteria. The DOT would then have to approve the selected consultant that could then help the City apply for the grant monies.
Applications would be due in early June with a final decision on awards being made in late fall.
“I feel like you (the City) would get the benefit of those engineering costs rolled into the project,” said Adams.
When asked, Adams said there would be no costs to submit a statement of qualifications for the 320th Street project for the DOT’s BIL funding.
Adams’ Cedar Corp colleague Lynn McIntyre reported that they are still working on the new municipal building’s repair punch list with Derek Building Solutions, the general contractor for the project. McIntyre noted they would like to have it completed by the end of the month. The council scheduled a meeting for next Monday, March 28 to go over the repair list with Cedar and Derek.
Glenwood City librarian Rochelle Karlson requested the council’s approval of a Civil War program to be hosted by the library on Saturday, May 14.
Karlson said the Civil War re-enactment would be put on by the “Prescott Guard”, that has members from River Falls, Hudson and Baldwin. With permission of the council and a safe and proper location, the event would include the firing of a Civil War era replica cannon.
The council gave its approval to move ahead with the project with the stipulation that Police Chief Robert Darwin approve the use of unloaded Civil War era guns in and around the municipal building.
During her monthly report to the board, Karlson told members that the library has seen an increase in usage since moving to its new location inside the municipal building.
She noted that 529 people had used the library in February and that its was on target to surpass that number in March with 510 having used the facilities as of last Saturday.
Karlson also told members that two library board members had recently resigned leaving three open positions on the board. Mayor John Larson said the council would consider appointing new board members following the upcoming Spring election which is slated for April 5.
Finally, Karlson noted that the library would be hosting a grand opening for its new location on April 30th. The event will feature a renowned jazz group from New York City that will be touring Wisconsin at that time.
Chief Robert Darwin made the council aware of nearly $19 million in grants that have been made available for municipal police departments.
Darwin said that every law enforcement agency in Wisconsin will receive at least a $7,000 grant from the state funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The Chief noted the monies can be used for officer training, recruitment and retention and technology and equipment needs but that the specifics of the program have not yet been established. With the potential to use some of the money for the purchase of a new Automatd External Defibrilator (AED) for the police department, Darwin asked the council to table that item, which it did, until more information about the grant is made available.
Anna Mewis informed the council the local girl scouts had applied for a grant through the St. Croix Valley Master Gardeners. If awarded the grant, Mewis said the girl scouts would build something at Glenhaven and hopefully around the sign at Hinman Park. She also noted that there is another grant that could be applied for to do another in front of the library or municipal building in general.
“The goal of this would be to re-establish native Wisconsin plantings,” said Mewis.
Finally, the council approved to pay request number nine to Derek Building Solutions, LLC for $45.321.95.
