Iola City Council members agreed Monday that plans for a pedestrian bridge over Elm Creek should continue, although they stopped short of pledging to cover any of the cost.
The bridge issue cropped up this summer after city officials realized engineer’s estimates to place an iron truss bridge over the creek along South Washington Avenue were nearly $100,000 short of what they should have been.
The bridge originally was pegged to cost about $250,000, but that projection did not cover installation costs, City Administrator Sid Fleming noted. Adding the installation costs pushes the price tag to about $350,000.
The city has $269,000 already in the bank, all of which comes from various grants, the largest of which is a $197,000 grant from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. That still leaves the city $81,000 short of estimates.
“Part of what concerns me is the estimate still is just an estimate,” Councilman Aaron Franklin said. “If we commit to $80,000 and it comes up we’re $120,000 (short), are we boxing ourselves in?”
“You don’t have to do anything until you sign the contract,” Fleming responded.
Assistant City Administrator Corey Schinstock noted the city is pursuing other funding avenues. He said KDWP may make additional funding available if grants to other entities go unfilled.
However, there are time constraints to waiting for additional funding, because the original KDWP grant, and those from other agencies, may have deadlines to have the project completed, Fleming added.
“Right now, we just don’t know what the gap is,” Schinstock said. “Until we bid out the project, we don’t know where the gap will be.”
“It’s important we move forward, because we have so many grants from so many entities,” Councilwoman Nancy Ford said. “It’s important to show we appreciate these grants, and the people involved. If we can get more grants, great, but if comes out of capital projects, it’s something we should do.”
The city has about $1.3 million in its capital projects reserve.
Franklin disagreed.
“Nancy laid out a lot of good reasons why we can do it, but I’m not for this,” he said. “Iola has a lot more important priorities than the bridge. If it can happen on grants, it’s awesome. There are better places for us to use money.”
Schinstock said the city has not approached Allen County commissioners about assistance because the city does not have a firmer grasp on what the bridge will cost.
“My assumption is that after the engineers came up short the first time, they padded their estimates the second,” Schinstock said. “The bids may come in under what they’ve projected.”
Iolan Donna Houser, a member of Iola’s CITF/PRIDE Committee, noted other funds may come from the sale of memorial plaques, although those funds likely would not be raised in time for the city to make its decision about the bridge’s fate.
MARK Peterson, a retired employee at Gates Corporation, noted he and his wife walk Iola’s trails daily.
“I’m not against the bridge, but I’m not for it, either,” he said. “How many people are using the trails?”
He also wondered if adding trails, and now a bridge, would further tax city employees when it comes to upkeep.
“My backyard is on the trail,” Ford responded. “I see people on it all the time. It’s used a lot, at all times of day.”
“I don’t disagree that it’s used a lot,” Franklin said, “but is it more important than the infrastructure needs we have.”
“We may not end up being short at all,” Ford replied. “The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks may come through with additional funding. I don’t want to see this abandoned with all this work they’ve done.”
The discussion concluded with Mayor Joel Wicoff asking around the table if there was sufficient support from the Council for the project to proceed.
Some of the members nodded.
“Let’s do it,” he said.
