With infrastructure funds flowing from Washington, D.C., It’s in Iola’s best interest to apply for every penny it can, Mayor Steve French said.
“That money’s gonna go someplace,” French said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. “We might as well bring some of it back home if we can.”
City Administrator Matt Rehder gave Council members a preliminary list of potential projects that could utilize Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation funds.
The two biggest-ticket items would be to replace all of the bare steel gas mains in the city, expected to cost about $10 million, and relining Iola’s 75 miles of sewer lines, which carries a price tag estimated at $8 million.
The BIL is a five-year, $1.2 trillion federal investment in the country’s infrastructure.
Rehder and Iola’s other department heads have begun poring through the mountains of information regarding eligible projects — a task unto itself — to find how Iola could benefit, Rehder said.
“One thing we learned about BIL, is there’s a lot more money available for things we already do,” Rehder said.
The plan is to apply for the full amount needed to complete each project, Rehder said. “If we don’t get that much, we’ll take whatever we can.”
Also on the city’s radar is to replace a series of 69-KV electric poles on the east edge of town, which would cost about $1 million; replacing a transformer at Iola’s Bassett substation, pegged at $800,000, and about $34,500 for information technology projects.
The funding mechanisms and application deadlines vary for each project.
For example, the bare steel main replacement does not require any sort of matching funds from the city, Rehder said, although he’s uncertain if it will remain that way. The application deadline for that project is still a year or two away.
The sewer relining, meanwhile, could be applied for immediately, but it would come in the form of a low-interest loan, which would require a rate increase to pay back the funds. But at 1% interest, the loan would be far less expensive to repay than through traditional state loans, Rehder noted.
The power pole and substation projects would require some matching funds from the city, although Rehder noted the state has allocated $200 million to help municipalities fund local matches.
“So we’re going to apply for as much as we can,” Rehder said.
As an aside, Rehder said he was unable to find BIL sources for other projects on the city’s radar, such as building a new sewage lagoon aeration structure, or rehabilitating the city’s water towers.
