City gets small street grant for repairs

Electric City has received an emergency grant from the Transportation Improvement Board to make needed repairs to nine small street problems.

City Clerk Russell Powers said that the grant is for just over $30,000, and will take care of nine of the 12 requests made.

As soon as he learned that emergency grants would be available, Powers said he submitted a list of 12 emergency repairs the city would like to make, along with pictures of the problems. “They approved nine, and we hope to have the work done in June,” Powers said Monday.

Worst of the emergency repairs is at Highway 155 and Western Avenue, where water stands whenever it rains. That corner was under water for considerable periods during the early months of the year. The water caused the pavement to crack and start breaking open.

Powers stated that the second worst spot was near the fire hall, where another spot was under water for long periods of time.

The other areas were more minor, but nevertheless problems. All were due, Powers asserts, to the winter and wet early spring weather.

Powers said the city is having Central Washington Asphalt pave a slab near the arsenic treatment plant. That 24- by 30-foot slab has already been bid at just over $8,100. Powers said the city has asked the same firm to bid the nine mini repair projects to see if it all could be done at the same time.

The pad at the arsenic treatment plant will be to dry the sludge bags from the plant before they are taken to the Grant County landfill in Ephrata.