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City staff outlines recent congressional-directed spending applications for water, sewer and flood recovery projects
Summary
City staff updated council on applications submitted to members of Vermont's congressional delegation for fiscal recovery and infrastructure projects, including waterline replacements, a building elevation project, sewer pump station replacement, and a valve-replacement registration of interest.
City sustainability and facilities staff provided a report on Montpelier’s recent submissions to congressional offices for congressionally directed spending (CDS), commonly called earmarks. Chris Lundberg, sustainability and facilities coordinator, summarized prior awards, reapplications and new requests.
Lundberg said two requests approved in the prior fiscal cycle — $2.5 million for accelerating citywide waterline replacements and $1.5 million for elevating a 20-unit building on Elm Street (Down Street) damaged by flooding — were approved at the CDS stage last year but were not funded in the final federal continuing resolution earlier this year. The city subsequently reapplied for those projects with Senator Welch’s portal and with Senator Sanders’ portal, per guidance from the delegation.
The city added new requests to Senator Sanders’ portal: a $7.5 million ask to replace five sewer pump stations damaged in the flood with above-ground, flood-resistant equipment, and a request to extend a river ice-melting pipeline west toward Bailey Avenue Bridge to address ice-jam vulnerability. Representative Balint’s office asked the city to register interest in two smaller items: a $100,000 request for water-valve replacements in the Bailey Avenue area, and potential interest in a $5 million request tied to construction/renovation at a Country Club Road property with multiple social services uses.
Lundberg cautioned there is no certainty the applications will be funded; he noted portals had opened and the city acted to reapply for previously-approved items and to pursue new needs identified by public-works staff. He said delegations’ portals opened at different times and that results would likely arrive in the federal fall appropriations cycle.
Ending: City staff will continue tracking the status of CDS applications and will report back as the federal process advances; staff emphasized the applications are contingent on congressional funding decisions and the city has no guaranteed award at this time.
