A significant increase in the overall cost of rebuilding Iola’s main thoroughfare will take precedence at Monday’s Iola Council meeting.
In 2022, the council pegged the cost for the U.S. 54 Highway rebuild at approximately $13 million. Just a year later, that cost has ballooned to more than $21 million, according to Burns & McDonnell engineers.
The city will be discussing options Monday that could reduce the cost to just shy of $17 million, including the project’s scope. On Nov. 16, city staff met with representatives of Burns & McDonnell engineers to discuss potential changes to help bring the price back down to a manageable price point.
The most substantial of the $4,192,470 in cost-saving options would be to eliminate improvements east of Kentucky Street, saving a total of $2,775,000. Other measures include reducing lighting to intersections only, using alternate pedestrian lighting, using seed instead of sod, and using standard concrete in lieu of permeable pavers, among several other suggestions.
When the project was estimated at $13 million, the council extensively debated passing a charter ordinance to allow the city to incur that much debt. The council approved the ordinance and plans to utilize sales tax revenues to retire general obligation bonds over 30 years for the rebuild. At the time of the passing of the ordinance, the anticipated annual bond payments were $500,000. It was noted that the city could afford this with its sales taxes, especially since Iola no longer shares half of its sales tax revenues with Allen County Regional Hospital.
Monday evening’s discussion will lead to a follow-up discussion and final direction at the Dec. 11 council meeting. The city is hoping to receive some direction on the project through the discussions to keep the project on track to break ground in early spring 2024, with expected completion in fall 2024.
The city council will meet at 6 p.m., Monday, in the Park Community Building in Riverside Park.
