City council members on Tuesday shifted about $269,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds away from its major ongoing drainage improvement project to a pair of smaller ones.
From that shifted money, the council approved a $238,000 bid from Pace Excavating for ditch improvements along Highway 45. The rest will go toward a drainage project on Summerhaven Drive, which City Engineer Kevin Stafford estimated would cost about $40,000. Summerhaven Drive is in East Columbus.
The council originally earmarked that ARPA money for a $6 million project to improve drainage at 10 strategically selected sites across the city. However, the city received notice in November that it had not properly advertised for professional services proposals for that contract, meaning it was ineligible for state match, Chief Financial Officer Jim Brigham told The Dispatch.
“They said if we use it for other watershed (projects) and do the bidding process correctly, they would match it,” Brigham said. “So what we were able to do is recover that $269,000.”
Construction bids were properly obtained for the major watershed project, meaning none of that money is in jeopardy, Brigham said. Also, a lower than expected construction bid left that project with about $300,000 of contingency funds, meaning shifting the professional fees elsewhere shouldn’t affect the scope of work.
As for the Highway 45 and Summerhaven Drive work, the city originally planned to fund those projects with internet use tax revenue. Now that money can go back into the pot for street paving, Stafford said.
Work on the Highway 45 ditch should begin in January and be finished by early spring, Stafford said, bringing much-needed drainage relief to a major retail corridor.
Stafford said the project will involve cleaning the ditches on both sides of the highway from Rural King north to Allegro Clinic near Bluecutt Road, then adding riprap in the downstream places where the ditch has scoured – 10 feet wide, 10 feet long and 18 inches deep – to mitigate erosion silt buildup in the future.
“This will be not only a true cleaning but an armoring of the ditch,” Stafford said.
The smaller project on Summerhaven Drive, which Stafford said should go to bid early next year, will include cleaning out the existing box culvert and adding a second one, which should keep the end of the street from flooding when it rains.
“It’s just a lake when it rains really hard,” he said. “Then of course it gets clogged up with leaves and all that other stuff.”
ARPA must be spent by September 2026.
Other business:
In other business, the council:
■ allocated $1 million from its capital improvement fund toward finishing the Sen. Terry Brown Amphitheater, approved designs for the work and approved advertising for construction bids; and
■ approved moving forward with temporary safety improvements on Main Street, between Fourth and Seventh Street.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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