Flandreau City Meeting
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An overview of how the city plans to fund a new Fire Station, a change in how sidewalk reimbursements will get done, grant monies awarded Flandreau for upcoming water and sewer projects, a K9 bite suit put up for sale, the approval of Juneteenth and MLK Day as city holidays, and the new contract and salary for incoming City Administrator Cohl Turnquist, are just a few of the highlights from the most recent Flandreau City Council meeting.
A public hearing on how the city intends to pay for a $2.93 million fire station was required before the city could apply for funding assistance from Rural Development. Should the RDA approve of the loan application, which is for about half of the overall cost Pederson said, the rest of the funding should be lined up to get the project done. Other sources are still being looked at to help defray the total cost, including asking the other communities that the department serves either to assist in the new station’s development, or to possibly take on an increase in expenses for services. The city would otherwise be borrowing about $1.5 million at a rate of 2.125% for a 40 year term.
Pederson added that given the rising cost of materials over the past couple of years, it may be a good thing the process has taken as long as it has.
“Best information is there has been some stabilization in pricing and availability since then,” said Pederson. “In other words, we’ve heard that pre-engineered steel is not as far out as it was six or nine months ago and that the price may have stabilized some. I’d like to be able to say that where materials and materials availability is concerned, we are in a better situation now than we would have been last fall had we gone to bid.”
In regard to the more than $8 million needed for necessary water and sewer line improvements, Flandreau was just awarded $2,811,165 for improvements from the American Rescue Plan Act funds awarded the state.
“The State grant funds comprise 35% of the project cost, and pledging our local ARPA grant funds kicks this up to 38% grant-funded. That is a good grant percentage these days,” Pederson said.