Holtville staff propose federal grant applications for Cedar Avenue repairs and Mellon Avenue curb-and-sidewalk work

Holtville City staff presented two candidate projects for federal funding and asked the City Council to review them ahead of formal application deadlines.

The staff presentation said the first project would complete Cedar Avenue between Fourth and Fifth streets, a section described as “in pretty rough shape comparatively,” and the second would add curb, gutter and sidewalk on the east side of Mellon Avenue from Eighth to Ninth streets, with a longer-term goal of extending improvements from Sixth to Ninth.

Staff said the Cedar Avenue segment was prioritized because it carries much of the city’s traffic off Interstate 8 and that the Mellon Avenue work would improve drainage where runoff currently pools at Mellon and Ninth. “Every time we do have a significant rain event, that area floods … it tends to stand there for long periods of time,” the staff member said,…