Grant filing mistake causes Granton street project delay
Due to an error in paperwork, the upcoming road project that would have seen new water and sewer lines installed underneath County Highway K that runs through Granton has been delayed. The project, which had originally been planned for next summer, is now expected to be pushed back by another two years as the village tries to secure the funding needed for the project.
The news of the delay came after the village’s regular meeting held a few weeks ago. According to Joye Eichten, the clerk for the village of Granton, the village has been working with the Cedar Corporation for the past few years to come up with engineering plans for the water and sewer project and the funding to cover its cost. In recent weeks, they have been working on an application for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), which was an essential grant to receive for the project to move forward.
“Well, we paid Cedar Corporation $6,500 to do the CDBG application,” Eichten said. “This was a big one for us, it would award up to $1 million with a 50 percent match. We have to have that grant in order for us to do the project. We are so small that we can’t afford it otherwise.”
One of the requirements for receiving the CDBG grant, Eichten said, was to submit a copy of the village’s Fair Housing Ordinance. For the purpose of the grant, the Village Board updated the ordinance in April of this year, replacing its outdated 1987 version. Although Eichten said the Cedar Corporation was present at the meeting when the ordinance was updated, somehow they submitted the application with the 1987 version of the ordinance attached, which resulted in their request for grant funding being denied.
“Our CDBG application was thrown out,” she said. “Without the updated ordinance, our application had no value. This stops the project. We can’t move forward without that grant.”
The planned project to replace the more than 80-yearold water and sewer lines was to extend from Railroad Street on the north side of the village to 5th Street on the south, a distance of approximately a half mile. Estimates for the project put the cost close to $1.6 million, and with the latest delay, that cost is only expected to get higher.
“We had a half mile of road planned,” said Eichten. “We were going to work on that when the county was ripping up the road (as part of a County Highway K repaving project), it makes sense for us to work on the water and sewer lines. This is really why we’re doing this at all, it helps us cut costs if the county is already doing the road anyway.”
From the county’s end, Granton’s most recent delay in getting its water and sewer project off the ground won’t affect their work much. County Highway Commissioner Brian Duell said he has encountered these kinds of situations before when working with cities on similar projects, and said the county will work with the village to complete the project, pushing back any major paving work on County Highway K through the village until they are ready to start their water and sewer project.
“The project in Granton is a city project, essentially we have a very small part in what they are doing,” Duell said. “We will work with the village, we know that there are large costs involved with this and it takes several years of grant writing and planning to get these projects done. It is much too difficult for these municipalities to fit into our schedule and timing of when we do things, it is easier for us to work with what works for them. The last thing we want to do is pave over the utilities that they want replaced only for them to have to tear it up a few years later.”
As for the project, Eichten said the village intends on trying again for the CDBG grant. The next chance to apply for the next round of grants will be coming up at the end of October, meaning the village will have to move quickly to submit its application. At the moment, Eichten said she is unsure if the Village Board will decide to work with a different engineering company on the project, or continue with the Cedar Corporation because of the quickly-approaching deadline.
“I’m not sure if it’s feasible for a new engineer to be able to come in to do this,” she said. “There would be a lot of work they would have to do within a month to make plans for the project that would need to be submitted for the grant. The Board will have to decide if the Cedar Corporation will continue to work on the project or not.”
If the village decides to continue to work with the Cedar Corporation, Eichten said they have discussed compensation for the additional costs and delays that have resulted from the engineering firm’s error.
“We had first asked to be reimbursed,” she said. “But they said they will submit the application at no charge. That is a given, we already paid for them to do the grant and they did it wrong. This next year’s application will also require now to have some engineering done on the project before you can submit it, and that will make it cost an additional $7,000. They agreed to only charge $3,000 for it. We are trying to reduce some of these costs.”
