Tuesday, February 9th, 2016
Celina seeks grant for Main Street project
Work would finish reconstruction
By William Kincaid
CELINA - City officials hope to land a state grant to fund up to 95 percent of an estimated $2.3 million North Main Street reconstruction project.
Council members on Monday night unanimously approved a resolution authorizing mayor Jeff Hazel to apply for an Ohio Department of Transportation Small Cities Program grant, available to cities with populations between 5,000 and 24,999 residents. They suspended the rules for three public readings and passed the resolution as an emergency measure to meet the grant deadline.
The project would include a complete reconstruction of North Main Street, as well as new curbs and sidewalks from Wayne Street to Myers Road, city administrators said.
"It's due March 1," city safety service director Tom Hitchcock said about the application. "Originally, this project was scheduled to be just a resurfacing of North Main Street (in June 2018) and ODOT called us a couple weeks ago and asked us if we wanted to change it to more of a reconstruction project and that's the reason for the short deadline here."
Hazel called the grant program a unique opportunity. If the application succeeds, the city would have to pay at least 5 percent of the construction cost, estimated at up to $115,500, from the general fund and/or storm water fund.
"If we can reconstruct (North) Main Street - it's a major gateway - it needs to be reconstructed," Hazel said.
"This is a project that, even if awarded, this grant ... won't start until at the earliest July of 2019, so this isn't something that is going to happen in the next couple of years," Hitchcock added.
Councilman June Scott said officials would be remiss not to apply for the grant.
"We've been pretty fortunate to receive monies from outside the city to take care of these (types of projects)," he said.
Councilman Jeff Larmore asked if underlying infrastructure would need to be addressed before construction.
"The water line would be different funding. ODOT will not cover any water line construction," Hitchcock replied.
Hazel said the city could pursue a water line replacement with water funds.
"Our philosophy has always been if we're going to do streets, we're going to do everything underneath it as well," Scott said. "Whatever we need to do, that's what we need to do."
The first Main Street reconstruction project from Lake Shore Drive to Livingston Street was completed in the summer of 2011. It was done in two phases and tested the patience of motorists, pedestrians and downtown business owners.
The Ohio Department of Transportation estimated the cost of the first project at $4.06 million; the final ODOT bid was $3.619 million.
The city's share of that project had been estimated at $1.69 million but ended up costing $1.25 million. After change orders were processed, ODOT refunded $423,000 to the city.
The city funded its portion with a $1.35 million loan and a $365,000 Ohio Public Works Commission grant.
ODOT has handled administration and bidding of all Celina infrastructure projects it helps fund because of a procedural infraction concerning the Grand Lake Road project in 2007.
