Wingate council approves application for $90,000 OCRA planning grant with $10,000 local match if awarded

The Wingate Town Council voted Aug. 13 to authorize the town to apply for a $90,000 Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) planning grant to study water, sewer and stormwater needs.

Grant writer Mike Kleinpeter of Kleinpeter Consulting Group told the council the application will be filed Aug. 16 and that award announcements are expected at the end of September. Kleinpeter said the town would include a contract with HWC Engineering — the only firm to respond to the town's request for qualifications — and that the town would sign that contract only if the grant is awarded. "The town would only pay the $10,000 if we got the grant," Kleinpeter said, adding the town would pay nothing if the grant is not received and would reapply in the next round.

At the public hearing resident Mark Fruits urged the council to prioritize solutions for recurring stormwater drainage problems. Following the hearing, Curt Hadley moved to approve the Resolution Authorizing the Application for the Planning Grant; Andrew Lorenz seconded the motion, which carried. Council President Kyle Campbell signed the resolution on behalf of the council.

If the grant is awarded, the town plans to hire an engineering firm to prepare cost estimates for three projects in each utility area — water, sewer and stormwater — and to use a resident survey (35 responses to date) to help identify priorities. Kleinpeter asked attendees to share the online survey and distributed hard copies at the meeting.

The resolution authorizes submission of the OCRA planning grant application and commits the town to a conditional local match of $10,000 (split $5,000 from Water and $5,000 from Sewer) only if the grant is awarded. The council took no additional financial action at the meeting beyond approving the application.

The council will learn whether it received the grant when OCRA publishes award announcements, anticipated in late September.