By JAMES BELL
Hays Post

ELLIS — The Ellis City Council approved the submission of a Community Development Block Grant application for citywide waterline improvements at Tuesday’s meeting.

The application was narrowly denied in a prior submission.

“CBDG is competitive. It’s rated against all other water and sewer categories across the state,” Justine Benoit, grant administrator with Northwest Kansas Planning and Development, told the council. “Last year, there were 28 applications and 12 were funded.”

“We were number 13 or 14. We were right on the bubble,” City Clerk Amy Burton said.

Benoit told the council a total of $6.8 million in grant money was given out last year for water system improvements.

The project is based on an engineering survey completed and approved by the state in 2015 and this is the last cycle available for the city to submit a grant application before a new survey would need to be completed.

“That’s why we wanted to resubmit this application one more time,” Burton said

The application is due on Sept. 27 and awards are to be announced on Jan. 17, Benoit said.

“For this project, we have four waterlines in mind,” she said.

Several hydrants are also projected to be replaced with the project.

The total project is estimated to cost $824,225, with the grant covering half. The remaining cost would be paid through city funds that were budgeted for the project.

In order to qualify for the grant, the project must be completed within two years.

During the meeting, the council took action on three agenda items related to the project: a resolution to approve documents for the project’s grant application; approval a contract with the NKPDC to complete and submit the grant documents; and authorized the mayor to sign any additional CBDG documents.

All three were unanimously approved by the council.

Only one last step remains before the grant can be submitted, the approval of the project engineer’s contract. He is scheduled to attend the next city council meeting.