A city project that would construct a sidewalk along a portion of Oak Street has been broken up—at least for the time being.
During Monday night's Indianola Board of Aldermen meeting, Mayor Steve Rosenthal mentioned the grant that was awarded to the city by the Mississippi Department of Transportation and suggested that they return the funds since the project has not been completed and the city's match portion of the allocation could be put to better use.
"I think it would be better money spent putting it on streets themselves rather than sidewalks. I think the sidewalk would be a great addition, but right now currently we still have no infrastructure federal bills out there, so I think every dollar we spend needs to go to streets," Rosenthal said.
After about a 30-minute discussion, the Aldermen voted 4-1 to formally pass up the allotment, return the funds and apply the city’s match money to the recently approved $1 million street repair project. Alderman Sam Brock voted no.
The grant, which was reportedly more than $200,000, was awarded in 2013 to construct a sidewalk from the south end of Hannah Avenue near the community garden, east to B.B. King Road as part of the Safe Routes to School program.
The City of Indianola was required to contribute about 20% of the total, which equated to around $40,000; however, a revaluation of the price in 2020 has increased the city's projected share to more than double the original amount.
According to Gardner Engineering associate Lake Baird, "In the last 7 years, obviously prices of everything has gone up, so now you're looking at about a $100,000 share of y'all's part. It's about $170,000 from MDOT and $100,000 from city shares," he said.
Baird said the $100,000 could go toward moving utilities or repairing pipes that are causing damage to the streets. “It doesn't bother us either way, we've got the plans actually started and we're 50% designed, the survey is already done, the preliminary work is already done, it's just, do we keep moving forward,” Baird said.
He added that none of the MDOT money has been spent and that all of the cash outlay so far has been from the city's portion. "Really and truly moving forward is how much more y'all want to go," he said.
The funds from the grant can only be used to construct non-motorized transportation projects, so it could not be used on streets or infrastructure.
Rosenthal stated the easements and the trouble they had getting permission from the homeowners has been what has held the project up this long.
Rosenthal stated, “That money that we have budgeted can be applied towards our streets project. Maybe we can actually add one more street or one more infrastructure part to it for $110,000.”
Rosenthal asserted that it may be possible for the city to reapply for the grant later on. "As long as they have the alternative grant out there we can use the same application to reapply," Rosenthal said.
He emphasized that this modification was strictly for the Oak Street part of the project and would not affect the B.B. King Road portion. Sidewalks are also going to be constructed on B.B. King Road from Roosevelt Street to Wiggins Road.
Alderman Ruben Woods asked if it would be detrimental to them receiving future grants if the city were to return the money that was awarded and Rosenthal asserted that it would be more disadvantageous to hold on to it, not use it and have MDOT pull the money, which he said was likely to happen if they did not soon use it.
"If we don't do something soon, they're going to take it away anyway. I think we'd be better off saying we've decided to move forward and put in all of our attention on the B.B. King (Road) project and move in that direction, it's a double-edge sword," Rosenthal said.
During the discussion some of the aldermen raised other questions and asserted that the sidewalk project was still needed, so the motion was approved with the stipulation that the city would reapply for the sidewalks grant at a later date.
In other business,
The decisions returned after a closed executive session included accepting the resignation of police officer Frank Brockman, terminating Hough-Dement animal shelter employee Elizabeth Elmore and granting a $2 per hour pay increase for public works employees Braden Little and Anthony Phillips.
A third request for a pay raise for public works employee Willie McGuire received a 2-2-1 vote with Alderman Brock abstaining.
