ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — The city of Robertsdale is once again applying for a sewer rehabilitation grant through the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.
“This is the fourth year we are applying for the grant,” said Mayor Charles Murphy, “and each year you don’t get the grant adds points that helps with the next year, so we’re really hoping to get it this year.”
The Robertsdale City Council unanimously approved a resolution at its meeting on Monday, July 15 to apply for a Community Development Block Grant through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
A public hearing was held July 1 to inform the public of the availability of funds and identifying the project that the city intends to address with the funds, according to the resolution.
The grant application to ADECA requests $450,000 in physical year 2019 Large City CDBG funds while the city agrees to provide a 10 percent match, bringing the total project amount to $495,000.
About $400,000 of the grant funds will be used for sewer line upgrades, Murphy said, while the remaining money will be used for drainage. The project calls for work to be done primarily along Nebraska and Pennsylvania streets.
The last time the city received CDBG funds was 2012, Murphy said.
“According to federal mandates, we cannot apply for another grant until that project was completed, which took about two years,” he said. “Once that project was completed in 2014, we began applying for another grant the following year, 2015, and have been applying each year since then.”
Murphy said he expects the grant funds to be awarded by the end of this year. If the city receives funding, the project should begin early next year.
In other business July 15, Public Works Director Scott Gilbert gave council members an update on the construction of new ballfields at Garrett Park.
Gilbert also asked the council to consider purchasing bleacher covers for all the city’s ballfields. When the new fields are completed the city will have a total of four baseball and four softball fields at the complex.
To provide covers for all the bleachers, the city would need to purchase 16 covers at a cost of $7,200. If the city installs the bleacher covers themselves, which would require cutting a hole in the concrete to set the metal posts for the cover, it will cost the city a total of $116,000. Contracting out the installation would cost the city an additional $72,000.
The covers would be set up so they can easily be removed when not in use, but are wind rated to 142 miles per hour, Gilbert said.
Also on July 15, the council:
• Approved a request to begin advertising for bids for the re-painting of the water tank on Fairground Road. The project was included in the 2019-20 fiscal year budget, said city engineer Greg Smith, with a budget amount of $230,000.
• Approved an ad in the annual Baldwin County Fair magazine through Gulf Coast Media.
• Approved the quarterly fire department roster, which includes 27 volunteers.
