Town advances $750,000 paving bond and approves Veterans Park change order increasing project costs

The Grand Island Town Board on June 1 authorized the supervisor to begin the bond-authorization process for $750,000 to fund the 2026 paving program and approved a change order to the Veterans Park access improvements after engineers reported additional site work and material quantity differences.

Highway staff described the paving program as including mill-and-fill of 1.6 miles of town roads and a one-mile mill-and-fill on Staley Road with shoulder widening and drainage work. The funding breakdown discussed in the meeting allocated approximately $300,000 to miscellaneous town roads and $450,000 to the Staley Road segment. The motion authorized the bond process to proceed.

Engineering staff reported unanticipated site conditions at Veterans Park — including survey-services needs, additional piping and surface drainage work and an underestimated pathway subbase — producing an extra bill of change-order items that cumulatively were cited in the meeting at roughly $67,000. Board members expressed frustration at repeated change orders but approved the additional work to keep the project moving.

Both measures passed in roll-call votes recorded in the transcript; staff said the Veterans Park work was engineered and that the change order arose from on-site conditions rather than a deliberate scope change.

Next steps: the town will initiate the bond process and proceed with the Veterans Park construction work with the approved change order; staff and finance officers will track the additional borrowing and project budget implications.