Just three weeks after bids on the city's water system improvement project came in much higher than expected, the board of aldermen received much better news during Tuesday night's regular meeting.
Project engineer Stephen Lin with Allstate Consultants told the board that two other communities that had been awarded grant money from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources had backed out of their projects, leaving that funding to be re-allocated.
Lin said Auxvasse could receive an additional $115,000 in grant funds, so long as the city agreed to attribute another $28,000 to the project.
"At the last meeting there were some hard decisions made ... parts of the project were deducted. Those deductions totaled about $134,000," Lin said, referencing the board's Aug. 5 meeting, when even the lowest bid for the water improvement project came in $219,000 higher than budgeted.
There was some discussion as to whether the city should take advantage of the additional monies to accomplish more of the water improvement project, or whether to allow the new grant money to make a bigger impact in the project by leaving the deductions out. City Supervisor Mike Berschinger said it also could be used as an opportunity to convert the old backup well, Well No. 3 to some kind of practical purpose.
"As long as we're getting matching money, we should do everything we can afford to do, otherwise down the road we're footing the bill," Alderman Mike Bickel said.
The board voted unanimously to give Lin the go-ahead to proceed with applying for the additional $115,000 in grant money.
In other business Tuesday night:
•The board voted unanimously to set the 2014 tax rate at $0.7195 per $100 assessed valuation.
•The board approved a $4,431 bid from VFIS for insurance for the fire department. The department's contract with the current provider, Fire PAK - which submitted a bid of $5,759 - expires at the end of September.
Katherine Cummins can be reached at (573) 826-2418 or [email protected].