Flandreau announced as finalist for national funding

Crescent Street Bridge looked at for potential grant money

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ArtPlace America, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., is a 10-year collaboration among a number of foundations, federal agencies and financial institutions that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical and economic fabric of communities, according to its website.

Emily Firman Pieper presented the council with information about the National Creative Placemaking Fund, for which she submitted a grant proposal a few months back.

“We may have a way to fix the Crescent Street Bridge with little to no funding required from the city of Flandreau,” Pieper said. “ … How does this bridge fit into their vision? It fits because it provides an essential tie to different parts of our community, most obviously the Flandreau Indian School with the downtown of Flandreau.”

In practice, this means having arts and culture represented alongside sectors like housing and transportation, with each sector recognized as part of the community by requiring planning, investment and the responsibility to contribute to the future.

Flandreau is one of 70 finalists for the grant funding and will receive a visit from ArtPlace on June 20 to further explore the proposal.

City council members had a number of questions about grant, including the financial range, which tops out at $500,000.

Alderman Bob Pesall asked Pieper if through her work so far she has an idea of what the bridge will cost to replace.

Pieper said she has heard varying accounts, but with the grant money, the process would start from the beginning with the repair cost determined by the state of the bridge as it stands now.

The ArtPlace grant money would fund that process, starting with engineering studies and moving to bid letting or design renderings, if the city decides to go that far.

“Is it something where the city would have to commit to the project?” Pesall said. “If we get into it and find out that the cheapest repair we can do is $4 million, are we able to walk away from it at that point?”

Pieper said it’s okay to walk away if the city decides ultimately to not repair the bridge. But that at this point, she’s just asking the city for their support as a partner moving forward with this possibility.

Mayor Mark Bonrud said his opinion has always been that they do not need the Crescent Street Bridge with the Highway 13 bridge less than half a mile away serving the same purpose.

He said most of his efforts right now are going towards making the dam safer as well as adding campgrounds and making the area more recreational.

“I consider that a lot more useful project than replacing a bridge that is redundant,” Bonrud said. “My concern is again whether we get that as grant money or federal money, it’s still money I believe can be used somewhere else.”

Alderman Karen Tufty said she had talked with Bonrud and suggested the possibility of turning the Crescent Street Bridge into a biking and walking bridge if the grant money would not fund the project of replacing it as a vehicle bridge.

With a pedestrian bridge, the downtown of Flandreau would still connect with the Flandreau Indian School and are north of town.

Speaking from a historical perspective, city resident Anthony Firman said he is strongly in favor of getting the bridge fully restored and functioning as it used to.

He said kids from the Flandreau Indian School can’t safely walk across the Highway 13 bridge if and when they do come into town.

“Not only do I want to get [the bridge] rebuilt and open to the public and joining our community, I want to send a message to the Flandreau Indian School that you are part of our community and a welcome part of it,” Firman said. “… I think it would be much more meaningful to our town than we even realize.”

Alderman Bart Sample said from what he remembers, when the Crescent Street Bridge had to close, the estimated repair cost ranged from $2-4 million.

He said he doesn’t think it’s unreasonable to say that a $500,000 grant won’t do anything to replace to bridge.

‘It’s just not enough. If we had some sort of a resource for the remaining $1.5-3.5 million, I would seriously look at it,” Sample said. “ … But that $500,000 would make a much bigger dent in a pedestrian bridge or something like that than trying to replace a vehicle bridge.”

Pieper said the beauty of the grant is that it allows the community not only to engage in the discussion of fixing the bridge, but also to leverage the funding and look for other potential partners interested in investing in its repair.

She never thought Flandreau would get on ArtPlace’s radar, but now they have the opportunity for the discussion of “what if.”

“What we really need from the city council at this stage, without even knowing if we’re going to be awarded to money, is to be a partner and keep looking,” Pieper said.

Alderman Dan Sutton said what struck him as something interesting with ArtPlace America is they saw something in Flandreau.

“Obviously we have something here that is unique, that they see in our community,” Sutton said. “We have this group from New York that listened to people from our community and researched and learned about our community and now are considering investing in our community.”

He said the city would not be obligating any financials by giving their support and that they don’t know if Flandreau will even receive the grant funding. But if and when that happens, they can have that discussion.

Sutton made a motion to support Pieper to move forward with the process of the National Creative Placemaking Grant.

He, Tufty and Pesall voted aye and Sample and Alderman Ron Smith voted nay.