By Jennifer Tangeman
The city of Logansport has been awarded federal stimulus money for a city street project.
Mayor Mike Fincher said the city was notified this week it had been awarded about $570,000 from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to resurface Main Street and Burlington Avenue.
The money is the first the city has received from the $787 billion stimulus act signed into law last year by President Barack Obama. The project is also the only one submitted by the city.
“We were hoping we would get it,” Fincher said. “It’s going to help us with our paving budget.”
Fincher said he and street commissioner Don Crain are working to prepare projects for funding that might come available in the federal jobs bill.
“The city is looking at submitting for another round of grants or stimulus money if that funding becomes available,” the mayor said.
He said the city is working to determine specific streets that would be eligible for funding.
“We are putting together projects right now,” Fincher said. “We have several streets that we believe will be ready for asphalt so we want to get ready for that.”
The mayor said federal money will help ease the financial burden of the city.
“We’ve just got to keep pushing and keep trying to get all of the funding we can from outside sources to help the situation we’re in with the tax caps,” he said. “Anything we can do to move forward that process we’re going to try to do.”
Fincher said he expected work would begin this spring to resurface Burlington Avenue and Main Street.
• Jennifer Tangeman is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or jennifer.tangeman@pharostribune.com.
