SUMMERDALE - The Summerdale Town Council has approved the submission of a grant application for the Rebuild Alabama Act. If received, the money will be put towards roadway improvement projects.
“This is part of the gas tax that went through a few years ago,” said Alan Killen with Civil Southeast. “What they do, they create a $10 million grant program for municipalities and counties, and the most you can get is $250,000 with about a $50,000 match.”
Asphalt Services is already working on resurfacing projects for the town. Killen has designed a project to tie in with the current work to connect resurfacing projects within town. The project will improve roads around the Summerdale Public Library, the tennis courts and the Summerdale School, which is already receiving some improvements. The grant application is due the first part of January.
Along with the resurfacing project, Mayor David Wilson said he’s spoken with County Engineer Joey Nunnally about restriping middle lines on town streets.
“I don’t know if the council has noticed, but our streets, all of them, need to be repaved just about, but also have a restriping of the ones that we’re not able to repave right now,” Wilson said. He said the two streets Asphalt Services are currently working on will be restriped during the repaving process. However, he spoke with Nunnally about the possibility of the county restriping the other town streets not currently being repaved. The cost for restriping the middle lines is $17,348 and the work would be completed by the county.
The final resolution at the town’s December meeting was to submit a pre-application for ADEM’s SRF loan program. The total scope of converting all of the town’s current water meters to digital meters is $823,000. If the loan is approved, the town will be eligible to potentially receive 50% principal forgiveness.
“Assuming this goes through, you’ll be looking at a payment of about $2,000 a month for the next plus or minus 20 years,” Killen said.
The new meters will be read from Town Hall. They also have a leak detection system, which will alert public works of a potential leak before a homeowner receives a massively increased water bill. The town will learn if they receive the principal forgiveness around May 2022. If the forgiveness is not granted, the town is not obligated to go through with the project.