Rib Lake seeks grant funds for McComb rebuild
The Rib Lake Village Board on April 14 held a special meeting and public hearing as the first step in re-applying for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for the McComb Avenue street project.
Rib Lake applied for the grant funding in 2020 to replace the storm sewer on Landall Avenue and reconstruct McComb Avenue. The village narrowly missed receiving the grant and after some discussion with MSA Professional Services decided to re-apply in the 2021 grant cycle.
During the public hearing, Art Bahr from MSA gave an overview of the CDBG program and its history; explained what types of activities and projects are eligible for CDBG funding; briefly reviewed Rib Lake’s proposed project, and asked for citizen input regarding the proposed project or any other CDBG activities, for which there was no question or comment from the one person attending the hearing.
Following the public hearing, the board approved a contract agreement with MSA for an amount not to exceed $3,000 to submit the CDBG application on behalf of the village. Bahr said applications last year had to reach 140 points to be awarded a grant and that Rib Lake’s score was 135 points. He said with some of the items MSA added, Rib Lake should gain some of the points it lost in the first application. Bahr said some of the points the village lost were for project need because MSA didn’t have a report from the public works department, which MSA now has and will be included with the new application. He said MSA also has additional photographs to include with the application, which should increase points for the village. Bahr said the general obligation debt for the village has increased over last year, which should also earn Rib Lake additional points. He said MSA was hopeful Rib Lake’s points value would increase enough to receive a grant.
The board also approved a resolution to submit the CDBG application, which lets the state know that the village is going to submit an CDBG application in the upcoming funding cycle.
In addition, the board approved a resolution authorizing the village to commit other funds. Cost of the project is estimated at approximately $1.1 million. Under the grant funding, the village of Rib Lake would be responsible for providing approximately one-third the cost of the project in matching funds or roughly $380,000.
Village president Bill Schreiner said Pat Morrow from MSA had mentioned at an earlier meeting that MSA could help the village search for a low-interest loan program to fund the village’s portion of the project. Bahr said MSA could certainly help Rib Lake with that. He said the village clerk will still have to secure a letter of interim credit from a financial institution to be submitted with the application to reassure the state Department of Administration (DOA) that the village has already taken steps to secure its share of the project costs.
The deadline for submitting grant applications is May 13 and which applications were granted funding will be announced in August. If Rib Lake is awarded a grant, MSA would do the topographic survey (field work) this fall and complete the final design work during the winter. The project would be put out on bids in March of next year with final completion of the project scheduled for fall of 2022.
