Vienna City Council talks West Virginia Streetscape, water meters
Vienna City Attorney Russell Skogstad, left, and Mayor Randy Rapp discuss the implications of Rapp’s proposed amendment to allocate $155,000 of ARPA funds to the Vienna Utility Board during Thursday’s Vienna City Council meeting. (Photo by Kristen Hainkel)
VIENNA — Vienna City Council voted to increase the city’s contribution for an upcoming streetscape project due to a budget change and to allocate $967,000 of the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to replace water meters at Thursday’s meeting. The first item on the agenda was to increase the city’s contribution to the State of West Virginia Streetscape project. Mayor Randy Rapp said two grants from the state will cover 80% of the project, while the city has to pay 20%. The project will focus on improving sidewalks, lighting, and adding ADA compliant street curbs between 28th and 32nd streets. The resolution stated the city needed to increase its contribution by $20,526.13 due to the lowest bid for the project being higher than anticipated. Rapp said the total cost of the project will be $754,540,40. The state is also adding in a 13% contingency cost of $102,600 in the event of unplanned expenses. The two grants the city received for the project were $750,000 and $20,526.13 is 20% of the contingency rate. Council passed the increase unanimously. The second resolution was to allocate $967,000 of the city’s remaining $1.18 million ARPA funds to the Vienna Utility Board in order to replace water meters. Rapp motioned to amend the resolution to include $155,000 to rehab two of the city’s water wells. “In my conversations with Public Works Director Craig Metz, we have another issue on the horizon and that is the rehab of wells 9 and 10,” he said. “We have not rehabbed those wells in a long time. Burgess and Niple gave us the cost for that project. The project in its entirety is $380,000.” City Attorney Russell Skogstad said he was concerned the public wouldn’t be sufficiently notified and the city could be in violation of the Open Meetings Act. “My concern is if we amend this to include $150,000 for well rehab, that it might not be a consistent notice to the public,” he said. Skogstad asked Metz, who was in attendance, if the well rehab allocation could wait until the council’s first meeting in January and Metz agreed. Rapp said he asked for the amendment due to the Utility Board submitting a request to allocate the $1.18 million funds to the Utility Board at their Dec. 16 meeting. Skogstad told him he could prepare a resolution for the well rehab for the first council meeting in January. Council members Tom Azinger and Jim Lerach attended by phone. Kristen Hainkel can be reached at khainkel@newsandsentinel.com