Pine Grove City Council held a second public meeting on April 13 at the Pine Grove Byrd Center to discuss the Small City Block Grant application for sewer system improvements.

The town of Pine Grove is seeking $1.235 million. That amount reflects the maximum SCBG of $1.5 million with a deduction of $265,000 the town already received from the program. That amount is a SCBG for the design of a sewer extension the town decided last year against installing.

Pine Grove has $60,000 remaining from that grant; the other $205,000 was used for designing the abandoned project.

The total current project is estimated to cost $2.016 million. The funding package includes the applied for $1.235 million SCBG, the leftover $60,000 SCBG design grant, and $721,000 leftover from an Environmental Protection Agency State and Tribal Grant (STAG).

Scott Hicks of Belomar Regional Council was present to brief council on the grant application process. The request is due April 20. Hicks also explained that the state is getting $16 million statewide in SCBG money. Also, the state is getting another $3-4 million in stimulus money for infrastructure projects. However, he said that funding will probably go to “shovel-ready” projects and would only affect the Pine Grove application in that it could move projects like theirs up further in the funding list

Also, Hicks told council that there is a possibility that SCBG would award Pine Grove another design grant and then they could reapply for more funding for the project next year.

Explaining the nature of the project, Dana Indermuhle of Swiss Valley Associates in Hannibal told council the project would upgrade the sewer system and shift some of the collection system from vacuum to gravity. The latter part of the undertaking would mostly be to the ends of the system where most problems currently exist. Indermuhle said if those were converted, then he believes there would be sufficient gravity for the remainder of the system to operate correctly. At the sewer plant, the engineer said a change to the aeration system would include additional tanks, but mostly use existing equipment.