Union Aldermen are hoping to get a little help upgrading the town’s infrastructure this year through a Community Development Block Grant. In a special called meeting of the Board of Aldermen Tuesday, Mayor Wayne Welch explained the town was applying for the grant to fund improvements to the town’s water well.
“We’re applying for a CDBG grant for the water well,” he said.
Welch said the town has been working on its application for a while, but he was forced to call a special meeting to make the deadline.
“They changed the criteria, “ he said.
Previously, Welch said, the grant has required the board approve a project engineer after receiving the grant funds. However, he said that has changed to require an approved engineer before the application is sent in.
The Town of Union was accepting proposals from engineering firms until 3 p.m. Monday, but the board could not wait until the next meeting to open them as the deadline to apply is Friday.
“This had to happen after Monday but before Friday,” Welch said.
As the board only meets once per month, on the first Tuesday of the month, the next regular meeting would be past the application deadline.
Only one engineering firm, Fontaine Engineering, put its name down for consideration, Welch said.
The board has previously worked with Fontaine Engineering on a Small Municipal grant. However the board usually uses Engineering Services for its engineering needs.
Welch said he was a little surmised Engineering Services did not submit a proposal but was happy with the past work done by Fontaine.
The special called meeting lasted less than five minutes as the board approved Fontaine Engineering as the project engineer. No other business was discussed.
