By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The City of Parsons is making progress on a number of grant applications that cover a variety of projects throughout the City. City Manager Michael Simmons updated the City of Parsons Council December 16th at their regular meeting on a number of video conferences he had been engaged in with Region VII on the progress.
“We had a couple Zoom meetings regarding grants,” Simmons said.
Simmons said that the City had reached out to Region VII regarding the grants on the Poplar Street Sidewalk Project and the Lighting Project around the Park Pond. Simmons said the original agreement included a maintenance preclusion that he felt should be honored considered the extensive amount of work that still remained on the two grants. Simmons said that he felt that Region VII should fulfill the obligation.
Simmons said that eventually a supervisor was called in on some issues involving the grants. The supervisor, as well as the City’s contact engaged in video conferencing on the matter of the grants. By the end of the meeting, Simmons said that there was progress and that the City should start seeing results within two to three months.
“Should go to a place where we have a plan of attack or go to bid or something. We’re going to shift gears. We’re going to start gaining progress on those,” Simmons said. “I mean they are several years old, we need to get them wiped out.”
Simmons said that the City had also been engaged in video conferencing on the matter of grants for the City’s Dilapidated Buildings Demolition Project. Simmons said that the City has supplied the grant program with additional documentation including a Willful Entry Agreement that allowed for the Asbestos Abatement Test and the Asbestos Abatement Testing results. There was an additional form that Simmons said the City was unaware of, but Region VII was handling on their behalf.
With the additional documentation submitted, Simmons said the project should be ready to advertise and go to bid as early as the week of December 22nd. In total, there are a remaining three properties left in the project: one in Pulp Mill Bottom, one on Quality Hill and one on Billings Avenue.
There has been no word on the resubmitted MLB Grant. Simmons said that he had resubmitted the grant with a lower amount in the hopes of approval for reimbursement on the lighting project at the Ballfield. He planned to contact the grant agency the next day since it was so close to the end of the year for the grant. Should the MLB grant fall through, Simmons said he considered reaching out to local companies for support.
“We’re like 40 short of a new infield,” Simmons said. “We want to have a Grand Opening, dedicate the Field to the new name, but might have some difficulty getting that done. See if we can appeal to their generosity.”
