The city of Elizabethtown has several improvement projects on the horizon in the coming months.
In a project update to Elizabethtown City Council at its work session Tuesday, City Administrator Ed Poppe said bids to two projects are expected to be brought to council in the coming weeks, based on the evaluation of the bids the city receives.
The first was the city’s sewer project that will enhance capacity to serve the city’s south side.
The city is offsetting “most, if not all” of the project will be paid for by a $1,250,550 grant from the Cleaner Water Program. The program is paid for by the American Rescue Plan Act and administered by the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority.
Poppe predicts bids will be ready for approval at a December meeting with work to start in the spring. He said the grant is good until 2026 so construction should be completed well before then.
“We’re ahead of schedule and we’ll make sure we stay ahead of schedule,” Poppe said.
At the Lincoln Trail Area Development District grand opening last week, Executive Director Daniel London said district stakeholders named the project as one of its top utility priorities. He said the city has had to turn away or place project on hold end because the south-end sewer infrastructure can’t handle the additional capacity.
Mayor Jeff Gregory confirmed London’s statement, but didn’t specify what projects London was referencing.
Another bid to come before council in the next 30 days is the first portion of the Buffalo Trail project, which is being paid for with a community development block grant, Poppe said.
The section runs from East Poplar Street to the bridge at East Dixie Avenue downtown. Because it is a smaller section, it should be completed in the spring because the grant is good until June 1, Poppe said.
The second section that picks up from the Haycraft neighborhood to Commerce Drive also is out for bid and due in December. Poppe said he thinks that bid will be presented to council in January.
Poppe also briefed council on installation of scales at the wastewater treatment plant to help weigh vehicles bringing waste to charge them more accurately. The bid could come to council at its next meeting at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Pritchard Community Center.
The final grant was for $200,000 to do an evaluation and study of the street system community wide, which gets into sidewalks, crosswalks and street lighting, along with the road network.
Poppe said city and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 4 officials have had a “kick-off meeting” with Palmer Engineering, which will do the work. It is the first in a series of meetings, which will include gathering public input after the new year.
The plan is to form a small working group to prioritize projects before bringing them to council for budget approval.
“At this phase in the project, we have a goal of having it done in late May or early June,” Poppe said. “The reason we’re shooting for that time frame, there’s capital improvements (federal) money that becomes available.”
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