Emporia city staff will be delving deep into potential uses for recently received federal dollars over the course of the next month.
This was the exact focus of a presentation by Emporia City Manager Mark McAnarney to city commissioners Wednesday morning. According to McAnarney, the city will be receiving a total of just over $3.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding over the course of the next two years.
Half of that total has already been received and McAnarney says there are multiple areas in which the funds can be spent.
He says at this time, city staff is still studying the full list of restrictions and allowances for spending the funds and should have a more clear list of possibilities ready to be presented to commissioners within the next month. As it pertains to Wednesday’s meeting, McAnarney says there were several possibilities brought up from potential infrastructure improvements to possibly replacing lost funds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In other business, commissioners received an update on an improvement project for sanitary sewer lift station #2 which the city has already contracted with BG Consultants for design work. The plan is to rehab the “aging piece of infrastructure” which is now well over 40 years old by replacing the pumps, upgrading electrical components, adding an automated screen and portable generator, rehabbing and lining the wetwell and installing a SCADA system.
City staff is planning to request commissioners set a bid date and time of Nov. 18th during its Oct. 6 action meeting. The plan is to have an award recommendation ready for the project by Dec. 1.
Separately, commissioners also discussed the potential reappointment of Municipal Court Judge Ted Hollembeak whose four-year term is set to expire in mid-November and proposed updates to the city’s rental property code.
The Emporia City Commission is tentatively scheduled to reconvene for an executive session next Wednesday at 10 am inside the Municipal Courtroom at White Auditorium. No action is anticipated.
Additional agenda items could be added at a later time.
