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Funding for two upcoming street projects in Bonner Springs won’t be coming out of the city’s pockets.

Beyond some design, utility and right-of-way expenses, funding for phase two streetscape improvements along Kansas Highway 32 / Front Street and a resurfacing project on 138th street between Metropolitan and Kansas Avenues will come courtesy almost entirely of stimulus money through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. During last night’s City Council meeting, the council unanimously voted to approve both an agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation for the latter item and going forward with payment to Wilson and Company, Inc. for final design of the former.

The phase two streetscape project is a transportation enhancement project under the ARRA the city was approved for in May. Marcia Ashford, community and economic development director, said at the council meeting that the phase two improvements would include such items as landscaping, decorative street lights and street name poles and signs on the north side of Front Street. Construction cost is estimated to be at around $325,135, which will be entirely funded by the ARRA.

The city is responsible for the design cost of the project, however, and so last night the council moved to pay Wilson and Company, Inc. an amount not to exceed $21,000 to move forward with its final design of the streetscape work. Though Ashford wasn’t yet able to specify how much that amount would be, she said it was necessary to seek approval now because of the deadlines put in place by the government in regards to ARRA funding.

“Since this is stimulus money, the federal government has set some stringent deadlines so that the project can be constructed as soon as possible in an effort to create jobs and stimulate the economy,” Ashford said in an e-mail following the meeting. “We have to submit plans to KDOT by Aug. 1, 2009 that are at least 65 percent complete.”

In a memorandum to the council, Ashford explained that to even use the funds, meeting this deadline with 65 percent of the design completed was “crucial.” She said that Wilson and Company, Inc. would be the best company to contract with as it had also been responsible for the phase one design of the project, which the city received $500,000 in transportation enhancement funding for and which will be going to bid soon.

A formal contract with Wilson and Company, Inc. specifying an exact cost of the design will be presented at the next council meeting, Ashford said.

The resurfacing project on 138th street was approved to receive funding through the ARRA by the Mid-America Regional Council in March.

More of this story can be found in this week’s Chieftain, out June 25.

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