Emporia is being reconsidered for stimulus money for a street project that was turned down in the first round of projects being looked at by the Kansas Department of Transportation.
Last spring, KDOT was awarded $11.4 million in funds for transportation district 1 under the Surface Transportation Program of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The Emporia City Commission approved five applications for stimulus funds; all five were denied by KDOT.
One of those projects, a mill and asphalt overlay on South Avenue from Prairie Street to West Street, is being reconsidered. But the city won’t have an answer until March 2010.
City Engineer Mike Novak said the city was approached by KDOT on Wednesday because of renewed interest in the project.
“What’s going on is that they want to make sure that they are using all of the funds that come to Kansas,” Novak said, “and in order to be able to do that, they’re mixing known funded projects in the stimulus plan with smaller projects, taking bids on them and doing as many of the projects as the budget permits.”
According to the original application, the estimated cost of the project is $365,132. If the project had been approved, the city’s share would have been about $11,000.
“All we’ve got is a project that they would like to have bids taken on to see if it fits the available funds,” Novak said. “There’s no guarantee except we’re being looked at again to see how all this fits in the budget puzzle.”
The only other public works stimulus money Emporia has qualified for is $360,000 to help pay for a $1.8 million project to replace a basin train at the Emporia Water Treatment Plant. Construction at the plant is scheduled to start in October.