Newport council approves budget amendments, signal grants, stormwater consultants and road repairs

Newport — The Newport City Council on a single agenda approved two budget amendments, authorized grant applications for traffic-signal work, hired consultants and an engineer for a downtown stormwater project and awarded a storm-damaged-road repair contract, among other measures.

At the start of the meeting the council completed a routine roll call and approved minutes from a previous meeting before moving to old business. During the second reading the council approved Ordinance 2025-02, an amendment to the city’s annual operating and capital budget, and Ordinance 2025-03, a fiscal-year 2024–25 budget amendment for Newport School. Both measures passed on roll-call votes.

The council then turned to new business and unanimously approved Resolution 2025-04, authorizing the city to apply for a traffic-signal modernization grant. City staff said the grant would fund traffic counts and allow traffic engineers to recommend signal-timing changes and synchronization downtown and potentially along state highways within the city limits. A council member raised a specific timing concern for a left-turn signal near Western Alto and staff said they would follow up to check the…