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Keene council accepts grants, awards engineering contract and reallocates CIP funds for downtown and bridges
Summary
The council authorized acceptance and expenditure of Homeland Security grants totaling $80,246 for EMS and hazardous materials equipment, approved a $130,000 engineering services agreement, accepted a $100,000 recreational-trails grant (20% local match required), and moved CIP funds — including a $150,000 transfer to the George Street Bridge Replacement.
The Keene City Council authorized several grants and a municipal contract Tuesday that officials said will support emergency services, hazardous-materials response, trail infrastructure and downtown improvements.
Councilor Thomas F. Powers summarized the grants recommended by the Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee: a 2025 Homeland Security grant of $57,118 for critical-care EMS equipment and a separate hazardous-materials allocation of $23,128. "This award ... will give us additional specialized EMS equipment," Powers said, adding that neither grant requires a local match.
The council also authorized a $130,000 engineering services contract with Michael Petrovic to produce specifications and bidding documents for long-running repairs on the back wall of a municipal building; Powers said construction work would begin in early spring and that the funds are already in the budget.
Separately, the council accepted a $100,000 Recreational Trails Program grant for the Ashuelot Rail Trail bridge rehabilitation project. Powers noted the grant requires a 20% local match and said the city hopes Keene State University will help with the matching funds.
On capital spending, the council approved reallocating FY26 CIP funds from a deferred traffic-signal replacement project to the downtown infrastructure improvements project and moved $150,000 of unspent CIP road-preservation funds to the George Street Bridge Replacement project to help cover rising construction costs.
Councilors said the actions reallocate existing budgeted resources to higher-priority infrastructure needs and position the city to begin design and procurement next year. No additional local tax or bond authorization was approved at the meeting; the moves were internal reallocations of budgeted CIP funds.
