City turns down state grant funding

City turns down state grant funding Brian Smith Wed, 05/22/2024 - 10:15 am Jacksboro officials will be working on sidewalks, like this one on N. Archer Street, with city funding, following the city’s decision to reject state grant funding. Photo/Brian Smith City officials decided to back away from grant funding and work on sidewalk renovations themselves. The city received a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Texas Department of Agriculture in 2021. With several problems with Grant administrators over the last three years and having to find a new administrator, the city was left with $171,000 after engineering costs and other fees. CityManagerMikeSmith told aldermen at the Monday, May 13 council meeting that recent bids on the sidewalk project, which the grant was to be used for, ranged from $800,000 to $1.8 million. With the remaining grant funding having a number of stipulations from the federal and state level, Smith suggested the city start from scratch. “We have the engineering plans paid for by the grant,” Smith said. “We will just have to do this in smaller phases.” The council unanimously voted to not use the remaining grant funding. Phase one of the project was going to redo the sidewalks on the north side of Archer Street and the east side of Church Street. Smith said since the Archer Street sidewalks were in the worst condition, the city will begin work there. Smith said the city should be able to get the work done cheaper without all the stipulations. City street work Alderman Greg Robinson asked Smith why street work done in the last six to nine months is already falling apart. Robinson said the way the city is doing streets is “not panning out” the way he thought it would. Smith said not having a city engineer keeps the street department from knowing what it is up against when it completes its street work. He also said having standing water on the streets, due to many not having curbs and gutters, causes them to deteriorate faster. Using one layer of chip seal on streets was also another reason. Robinson suggested hiring an engineer and receiving a report on the city streets. He suggested spending money on doing the job right the first time instead of having to redo streets. “Instead of doing two miles a year now on chip seal, maybe we could spend our money doing one mile a year with asphalt,” he said. “Everyone I’ve spoken with would rather do less but get better quality.” Alderman Brandon Sisson said the city is not in the best spot for having great streets. “We’re not living in a great place for roads,” Sisson said. “We get hot weather, freezing weather and rainy weather where the water sits.”