City of Brownton sets May 12 hearing for proposed project

The city of Brownton has set a public hearing on its proposed street and utility improvements for Tuesday, May 12, at 7 p.m., in the Brownton Community Center.
The City Council set the public hearing at its April 6 meeting after hearing from engineer John Rodeberg of Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH) that a public hearing is the next step in the process of seeking funding from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Development program.
Rodeberg said the public hearing will outline the project for city residents. The city is proposing to spend just over $6 million in the next two years for a wide range of storm sewer, water main, sanitary sewer and street improvements.
Rodeberg told the City Council that the original plan had been to do the “easy fixes” in 2016 — namely the lining of leaking mains in alleys. Those would not require “open cutting” of streets, Rodeberg said.
However, it’s become increasingly obvious that storm water mains in the area immediately to the north, east and west of the Civic Center are collapsing, and a decision has been made to do the major open-cut work the first year, and the lining the second year.
The public hearing also will outline the funding the city is pursuing.

For more from the meeting, see the April 15 print edition of The Chronicle.