St. Paul council commits up to $250,000 in MVH funds as match for Community Crossing grant, approves engineering contracts

The St. Paul Town Council voted unanimously Oct. 7 to commit up to $250,000 in Motor Vehicle Highway (MVH) funds as the town's local match for a Community Crossing Matching Grant application. Council member Tim Ray moved the allocation and Council member Kim Livingston seconded; the motion carried.

The grant match was presented to the council by Lori Young as part of a package of long-term planning and infrastructure proposals. The Community Crossing Matching Grant requires a local match; the council approved dedicating MVH funds up to $250,000 to satisfy that requirement.

Council also approved a continuance of the Fleis & Vanderbrink engineering agreement on an hourly basis, not to exceed an additional $5,000, to support engineering work related to these infrastructure efforts. Earlier in the meeting the minutes record approval of a separate AGREEMENT TO PROVIDE SERVICES with HWC Engineering under old business. Both motions were moved by Tim Ray and seconded by Kim Livingston and were recorded as carried.

Water and sewer work was raised alongside road work: Water/Sewer Operator Les Day presented the monthly report and referenced road grading work; Cripe Engineering requested new sewage hook-ups at a new-construction location (the request was recorded in the minutes; no vote on the Cripe request is recorded). The council also reviewed sewer televising findings and instructed staff to send letters to affected residents outlining required actions (see related article).

The council did not record a dollar-by-dollar project budget or a construction schedule in the minutes; staff were directed to proceed with the grant application and to coordinate engineering tasks. The next step recorded in the minutes is for staff to finalize application materials and use the approved funds as the local match.