Holy Trinity asks West Point for $210K

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

WEST POINT - Holy Trinity Catholic schools is looking to the city of West Point to help pay for street and sewer replacements and upgrades that are planned as part of the new elementary construction project.

At Monday night's regular city council meeting, John Hansen of Midwest Construction Consultants, told the council that engineers had identified improvements associated with the project.

Hansen said $76,932 has already been paid to replace some mains and add manholes and storm structures in the intersection of 5th Street and Avenue C.

He also proposed an option for water management for storm water that will run west toward Merschman Seed. Hansen proposed installing two inlet structures on each side of Avenue C that would run to the south at a proposed cost of $12,300.

Proposed road and sidewalk improvements at a cost of $332,479 would include grading and replacement of 5th Street from the intersection of 5th Street and Avenue C, to the alley south. Avenue C would be replaced from intersection to intersection and the alley would be paved. All sidewalks would be ADA compliant.

Engineering and staking costs would total $18,000 for a combined total of $439,711 in road, sidewalk and storm water improvements.

"We have to do the project, the school understands that, and we're doing some improvements around there, but we're hoping the city would commit $210,000 of this $439,000 to the project either in one year or over the course of two years to assist the school in getting this all done at one time," Hansen said.

"We don't have a choice in the ADA and getting this all done. We're hoping the city will contribute to some this cost that were experiencing seeing as it will help the city in the long run."

Mayor Paul Walker said the council will have to discuss the cost. He said the city's budget is already finalized and the city is just starting a $1.7 million lagoon improvement project and money is tight.

"Adding something like this to that - really we could go broke," Walker said. "We want to help as much as we can, but I don't know if we can come up with that kind of money or not."

Walker said the city does have programs in place where they can cost share on some of the sidewalks and those kind of public/private partnerships.

Dennis Menke, the chairman of the HTC Elementary building committee, said the committee is counting on pledges that have been made over a five year period to secure financing for the construction.

"We're going to have to borrow some money because we're going to have the school built, but not going to have all our pledge money," Menke said. "So we can be a little flexible if you want to spread this out over an amount of time. It's a hell of a gift to the city to have a new school in here."

Hanson said construction on the streets could start shortly and Walker said the city would need to be informed of the closures so they can get signage up.

Menke said closing X23 is going to be a "bear" and Walker said the longer it is closed, the more damage will be done on the side streets. Suggestions to alleviate the problems included detouring trucks as far back as Hwy. 2 and rerouting truck traffic down the bypass or other highways to keep them off the city's sides treets.

In other action, the council:

  • approved a $1.74 million contract with Fye Excavating out of Sperry to handle the sewer lagoon improvements. Bid letting on the work was done Thursday with three bids. Projected estimates for the work was $1.53 million. Walker said all three bids were close.
  • heard of plans for the 2019 RAGBRAI that will come through the town on Saturday. Katie Wilson, heading up the town's RAGBRAI committee Riders will be ushered out of town by 1:30 p.m. Bikers will come into the town on Main Street. Local vendors will be allowed to set up in the park with applications being accepted with with space rental rates of $250 for non-profit and $300 for-profit. Applications can be obtained at City Hall.
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