Ozark looks to square's other half
With west side nearly rejuvenated, city seeks a grant to make east match up.
By Didi Tang
News-LeaderThe good news is that Ozark's downtown square now can show off brand-new brick pavement.
The not-so-good news is that not every street around the square has that luxury.Forced by limited funding, the city is revamping only the west side of the square, but officials are counting on a federal grant program to rejuvenate the east side, just as it has done for the other half.
"We're confident that we'll get it," City Administrator Collin Quigley said. He believes officials at the Missouri Department of Economic Development will "look favorably at it."
Quigley is talking about a $100,000 federal Community Development Block Grant. State officials manage the program.
Quigley said the city is putting together an application package for the grant, which, if secured, would make up a fourth of the projected cost of Phase 2 of the square project.
Phase 1, with an estimated price tag of $413,000, started Feb. 15 and is expected to finish by June.
By then, the square's west side will boast new sidewalks, decorative streetlights and more trees. Underground, there will be new water mains, sewer lines and a storm-water drainage system.
Phase 1 and the whole project would have been impossible if not for a $300,000 federal grant from the CDBG program.
Officials say that grant jump-started the project, which aims at turning the downtown spot into a lively business district.
To win the $300,000, businesses on the square have pledged to do $300,000 worth of repair work to their properties.
The city set aside $81,000 cash and $31,000 worth of in-kind work to close the gap between the grant money and the project cost.
Now, officials are taking steps to make sure the square's east side will match its west side — at least in the look.
"It's very important," Mayor Donna McQuay said of Phase 2. "Just to make the complete picture."
Michael Zimmerman of Archer Engineers, a project management firm in Springfield, presented a preliminary Phase 2 proposal to the Board of Aldermen on Monday night.
Though the second phase would involve little underground work, it covers more surface area, so its estimated cost is about $400,000, nearly as much as Phase 1.
This time the city can get no more than $100,000 from the CDBG program, and that is exactly what the city is going after, Quigley said.
"It's very critical to the completion of the square," he said, noting that Phase 2 hinges on the city's ability to win the federal money.
"It'll be premature to discuss until we secure the grant fund," Quigley said. "We're not there yet to make decisions for Phase 2."
Should the city win the grant, it would find ways to come up with $100,000 worth of in-kind work — probably from city staff — and $200,000 cash to complete the project, Quigley said.
Then, landscape architects would make drawings for the east side of the square, bids would be sought, and more paperwork would be submitted to channel the grant money into the project, Quigley said.
If all goes smoothly, Phase 2 could start in 2005, Quigley said.
The Archer Engineers proposal said the project will need nine months to complete.
"We're anxious to finish the project," Quigley said.
Published April 12, 2004
Copyright © 2004, The Springfield News-Leader, a Gannett company.
