South Street in Alma is
presently constructed of both Concrete and Asphalt and according to
some estimates, is the second highest traveled road in Harlan County.
This being the case this road takes a lot of abuse and as we all know, is in
desperate need of some major repairs.
A couple of years ago the City Council made the decision to
hold off on the reconstruction of this road due to the pending highway 136
construction and the increase traffic this would place on South Street. It
was not thought to be cost effective to redo the road then have the
increased traffic from the Highway 136 construction shorten the life of the
newly redone road. Therefore the decision was made to delay the
reconstruction of South Street until after the highway 136 project was
completed.
Now that this project (Highway 136 - Alma to Republican
City) seems to be in the final stages, South Street is now again on the
minds of you local representatives. If you have driven South Street
you know that this road is in need of some major repairs. The city
crew has been trying to keep the holes filled but this is only a temporary
solution and the problem will only become worse as we reach the winter and
into next spring.
When this project was looked into before the cost of the
project was between $300,000 and $500,000.00. With those figures in
mind the City Administrator was directed to look into a CDBG grant to help
fund the project. This grant was applied for in 2005 and subsequently
denied. The grant was partly denied due to the open status of the
other grants that the City is presently working with. Since this was
one of the reasons for the declination of the grant, it is the opinion of
the City Administrator that Alma would have a better chance of obtaining the
grant funds if the City were to apply again next year (2006) when the other
projects are completed.
This all brings up some questions for the City Council to
consider and I would like your thoughts and ideas on not only those
questions but maybe some of your own.
Some Questions:
