East Grand Forks leaders remain hopeful that the city will qualify for additional grant funding to cover rising costs associated with the LaFave Park improvement project.
The Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trail Commission has already agreed to chip in $871,000 dollars towards the plan – with the city picking up 25% of the bill. Under a revised grant submission the city’s share would be 20% on a $2.2 million dollar plan.
In May the city received two bids for the work that includes a new boat ramp…improved roads…and parking lots. The low bid was 50% higher than the anticipated price-tag.
City Administrator Reid Huttunen says he came away from a recent commission meeting feeling cautiously optimistic. “We didn’t receive a specific recommendation at that meeting but we did get to see initial rankings of all the applications. The LaFave Park project ranked 5th out of 20. I think there’s funding for probably the top 10-12 projects.”
Huttunen says the city will likely know more about the fate of the grant request by the end of the month.
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