Priest River approves street alignment project

PRIEST RIVER — City Council has approved a street realignment project that encompasses the Wisconsin Street, High Street and U.S. 2 areas.

The main parts of this project will fix a waterline under the road and to much needed repairs to the intersection, said Mayor Jim Martin.

The Local Highway Technical Assistance Council approached city officials earlier in the month to see if the city was ready to proceed to bid this year instead of next year.

After running the numbers, the original amount of the city’s match was $89,000. This jumped to $104,000 for materials needed for the road project, which is 7.34% of the total project budget, Martin.

$125,000 of the project is for the waterline that’s going to be replaced under the intersection, Martin said.

Before LHTAC wanted all the funds up front, but after a conference call last week LHTAC told the city officials that as long as the city would agree that the money would be awarded to the project this year then the city would not front all the money, said Martin.

The city doesn’t want to sit on $125,000 of the DEQ loan and pay interest on that loan as they write a check until the project is closed out, said Martin. That prompted city officials to negotiate with LHTAC to not require the payment until the city is sure of the funds for the project.

The council unanimously passed a resolution to authorize the city to enter into a state local agreement with Idaho Transportation Department for the realignment project.

The next Priest River City Council meeting will take place Sept. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at the Priest River Event Center 5399 U.S. 2, Priest River.