City of Emporia approves design contract for southeast transmission main project

Photo by Tagan Trahoon/KVOE News

Design work is now set to commence for a major utility project within the city of Emporia.

During their regular action meeting Wednesday morning, Emporia City Commissioners approved a better than $700,000 design contract with BG Consultants for the so-called southeast transmission main project. The 20-inch line will stretch from Garfield to Carter and is set to replace the existing 16-inch line in the area while connecting to all lines north to south from Neosho to Carter.

Public Works Director Dean Grant says the design phase should take roughly 18-months with the line set to relieve much of the stress on the existing network. He tells KVOE News while the line will not fully eliminate the potential for significant line breaks, much like those seen in abundance over the past week, it should lead to a significant reduction in frequency.

In other business Wednesday, commissioners held a public hearing for a potential application to the federal CDBG-COVID Resiliency (CDBG-CVR) grant program. The program is using leftover Cares Act funding, $2 million, to assist small businesses with fewer than 50 employees in making much-needed upgrades and improvements.

For the city of Emporia, Assistant City Manager Mark Detter tells KVOE News the plan is to use the funding to support an expansion of online presence for local businesses. Detter explains the updates will allow businesses to be better prepared in the event another major global incident, such as COVID-19, were to occur in the future.

The next step in the process will be for city commissioners to review and potentially approve an application for the grant. If approved at the federal level the grant could provide up to $150,000 to the city.

Detter says he hopes they could have 15 local businesses involved in the effort. As of Wednesday, he reported eight had already expressed interest in the grant funding.

In separate action Wednesday commissioners:

*Awarded a bif of more than $500,000 to Bruce Davis Construction LLC. for a paving project at the Mahtropolis Addition*Approved a bid for a cleaning, repairing, painting and internal mixing system project at the 12th Avenue Elevated Storage Tank.*Approved a design contract with Emporia State University stating ESU will pay $75,000 over a 10-year period for the right to have its logo displayed on the elevated storage tank at 12th Avenue.*Approved the purchase of turbidimeters for just over $56,000, improvements for Sunset Lake’s stormwater pond*Adopted the standard traffic ordinance for Kansas Cities

During their study meeting, commissioners reviewed the following items:*Wastewater treatment plant instrumentation*Board appointment policies*Revisions to Kansas statutes related to Rural Housing Incentive Districts.

Commissioners also tasked Commissioner Erren Harter and Mayor Susan Brinkman to conduct interviews for members of the new Emporia Homeless Advisory Board.

The Emporia City Commission will next convene on Wednesday, August 16 at 11 am inside of the Municipal Courtroom at White Auditorium.