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Public meeting held in Mendota for sidewalk grant proposal · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Public meeting held in Mendota for Sidewalk Grant Proposal. Written by Matthias
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  Warner. This article is being read by an automated voice, brought to
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  you by Everlit. More details on Mendota's potential sidewalk project
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  emerged Monday night at a public meeting held in the city council
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  chambers. Mendota Project Director Annie Short and Chamlin and Associates Representative Noah
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  Quintana presented information and answered questions from city officials and attending residents
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  on the possible sidewalk coming to the east side of town, running
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  from the Fourth Avenue Viaduct towards Interstate 39. The train depot is
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  almost our hub, and we want to make sure that we we
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  we have paths that go in each direction so that there is
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  easy transportation going from all corners of the
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  city into the downtown area, Short said The public meeting was a
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  way for residents to see the renderings of the potential sidewalk and
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  ask questions or raise any concerns as well as for the city
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  to enhance its upcoming Illinois Transportation Expansion Project grant application for
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  the project. The two-phase project would provide the city 5 million in
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  grant funding,$2.5 million per phase, although Schwartz said that it's possible only
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  one phase is completed. The initial phase would add walkways that extend
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  out to the OSF Saint Paul Medical Center. If The
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  second phase is funded, the walkway would extend from OSF towards the
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  gas stations, hotels and restaurants neighboring I 39. We could just apply
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  for the first phase, because the first two point five million dollars
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  might be enough for our city and it at least gets us
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  out to the hospital, and it does at least create a path
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  out to Ridley Feeds, ADM, and all those buildings, and it gets
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  us closer to the hotels and retail stores out there, Short said.
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  The ITP grant application requires a percentage match from the applying city,
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  which Short said in Mendota's case would likely be twenty percent of
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  the grant total, amounting to around 470,000 per phase. Following the
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  public meeting at the regularly scheduled Mendota City Council meeting, city officials
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  approved the commitment of those funds to the project should the grant
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  be awarded to the city. Short said that there is a high
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  likelihood that the city receives this grant. The city will not find
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  out the results of the application until next year. One community member
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  in attendance at the public meeting noted that this project could help
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  to address what plenty of residents are asking for in the city.
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  When we did our community heart and soul surveys, sidewalks were one
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  of the top things that everybody asked for. Reimagined Mendoto member Amy
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  Brewer said, it is a lot of money, but it is something
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  that many people said they would like to see.