Heavy rain may soon no longer be an issue for storeowners in Decatur after the Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to move forward with plans to address water drainage along 8th Street using Small Muni grant funds.
In Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting, Mayor David Marshall told Aldermen the town had received a $120,000 grant to improve the town’s economic potential. The Small Muni grant, he said, is something Decatur has received in the past and has used for previous road work projects.
With these grant funds, Marshall said, the plan is to address drainage issues to stop water from entering shops along the north side of Broad Street.
“It’s holding water up in that area,” he said. “We’ve actually got some video of water coming out from under the building next to Jason (Mangum’s office).”
The project, which is expected to cost about $20,000, will be contracted through Fontaine Engineering for a fee of $9,450. Funds to pay the fee will be taken from the Public Works budget and will be part of the town’s 10 percent match - about $12,000 – which is required for the grant.
In addition to accepting the grant funds, the board also accepted a bid of $9,500 from H&H Construction for labor costs on the drainage project.
Patrick O’Neil, who is acting as liaison between Fontaine and the Town of Decatur, said he received two bids for the labor portion of the project, but H&H was the lowest.
“That is for the labor only,” O’Neil said. “I did an estimate for materials and came up with about $10,000. That’s with contingencies.”
However, he said, when the materials estimate had been done, it used the base cost of $160 per ton for asphalt. Currently, asphalt is going for about $100 per ton, so the cost may be even less, he said.
The board voted to give O’Neil authority to accept bids for the materials portion of the project in order to begin work as soon as possible. While the town has until Dec. 31, 2020 to spend their current Small Muni grant, O’Neil said the applications for the 2019 grant would be due in May or June. To be eligible, the board will need to have the current project underway and the money dispersed.
“They won’t let you apply if you have an open project,” he said. “We need to get asphalt quickly to get that 2019 grant application in.”
If all goes according to plan, the board hopes to have their drainage issues resolved and have grant funding available for another project next spring.
