Ashland leaders search for ways to lower sidewalk costs

By Audrey Ellis, Boone County Journal

A proposal to build a sidewalk connecting Southern Boone Primary School to a nearby neighborhood is still on the table, but higher than expected construction costs are causing delays, a city administrator said.

The proposal calls for the extension of a sidewalk on Liberty Lane across school property, and the addition of flashing pedestrian beacons along Henry Clay Boulevard.

The city and Southern Boone Area YMCA applied for a federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant for the sidewalk project, as well as the YMCA’s planned construction of a trail around its property.

The TAP grant would reimburse the city’s costs by up to 80%.

However, the city is struggling to find ways to keep project costs down. After an unsuccessful first round of bidding, the second round yielded an estimate of $600,000. City Administrator Kyle Michel described the bid as “just not feasible.”

“We’re still evaluating how to move forward,” Michel said. “The issue at hand, outside of the fact that quotes have come in extremely high, is that once we have this grant award, we can’t augment that.”

The TAP grant would only cover up to $130,000. Ashland city leaders are hopeful that they can lower costs by having city staff do some of the work and by involving more of the community and local businesses via monetary donations, materials and labor.

“The reality of these TAP grants is that $600,000 is a very high bid. If the city were to elect to go build these improvements on our own, we could do it for a lot cheaper, as opposed to bidding it as specified by (the Missouri Department of Transportation),” Michel said. MoDOT often assists local governments with federal grant funding.

“We have an opportunity to drive that price down,” Michel said, “so we’re trying to evaluate that to see what can be done.”