Main Street project put off until 2029 Fifth Street back on the docket

By Neal Hogden

The City of Abbotsford Common Council voted to put off the Main Street project until 2029 at its meeting on Monday, June 3 in favor of pushing up the Fifth Street project timeline. Public Works Director Craig Stuttgen told the council that the Fifth Street project failed to qualify for Local Roads Improvement Program (LRIP) funding for this cycle and said he was unsure if it would qualify for said funding in the future. Therefore, Stuttgen and MSA Engineer Dan Borchardt suggested that the city utilize Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for the Fifth Street project.

By using the CDBG funding for Fifth Street, the city would need to wait three years before applying for the CDBG program again, pushing off the next application for Main Street until 2028. If everything goes to plan, the city would utilize the program for both projects with Fifth Street occurring in 2025-2026 and Main Street (First Street) beginning in 2028 and construction being carried out in 2029.

Alderman Kevin Flink said Fifth Street is one freeze

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and thaw away from falling apart and it should be the city’s priority to get that street done. He said as part of his preparation for the meeting, he drove on Fifth Street and said it was not a pleasant experience.

In order to get the maximum benefit out of the CDBG program, road and utility improvement projects would need to be $1.5 million. Stuttgen said the city would need to scale up the Fifth Street project to meet this threshold instead of using the $800,000 project that was planned for the use of LRIP funding.

Stuttgen and Borchardt said Abbotsford was not chosen to receive LRIP funds for the Fifth Street project due to the lack of traffic on the roads but said CDBG funding would likely be available for the project. The CDBG application project takes into account the poverty level of the area that is to be worked on.

City Administrator Josh Soyk said the city had used the CDBG funding in 2021 for the water tower rehabilitation project as well as the creation of two new wells which are scheduled to be installed this summer. The city would not be able to apply for the CDBG funds again until the last CDBG project is closed out. Soyk estimated that would occur in October of this year. He then said the CDBG funding application period is held in May so the city wouldn’t know if the Fifth Street project would qualify until summer of 2025.

Soyk said this would likely mean the construction phase of the project would not begin until spring of 2026.

The adjustment in timetables for construction of both road and utility projects comes after Borchardt told the council in his engineering update that the Main Street project was about 30 percent complete from an engineering standpoint. Soyk said the city has spent $33,750 in engineering on First Street thus far but said all the engineering would be able to be used whenever the project is started.

Other business

■ Representative Karen Hurd spoke during the public comment period at the council meeting. She shared with the council what she has done in her first term as a legislator and asked for members of the council’s vote this fall as she goes up against Abbotsford resident, Lori Voss for the 69th District Assembly seat.

■ ■ The council approved a second pay application to Switlick and Sons for the Swampbuck Drive work in the amount of $105,615.74. Soyk said there will be a final pay application at a future meeting when the work is finished. The pay request estimated 93 percent of the work on the extension is finished and the city will have about $40,000 left to pay the contractor for the final pay application.

■ ■ The council approved the purchase of a used grader. The grader is a 2015 Caterpillar and has around 4,000 hours on it. Stuttgen said that is next to nothing in terms of heavy equipment and the equipment’s life span. He said the price of $198,742 is a reasonable one as the piece of equipment would be more than $410,000 new.