Following Perry City Council action Monday, the 1500 block of Second Street is now private property, and the Progressive Foundry is moving ahead with its multi-phase $1.8 million factory expansion plan.
The council approved in September the vacation of Second Street between Bateman and Rawson streets and approved its intention, after an Oct. 21 public hearing, to sell the vacated city ground.
The final step in the process was taken at Monday night’s meeting, when the council sold the property to the Progressive Foundry for $1, with the foundry agreeing to pay $50,000 to relocate the water main that currently runs under Second Street and to provide a public utility easement for the sanitary sewer line under Second Street.
The council also approved Monday the submission of an application for a Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance (PWEAA) program grant through the U.S. Economic Development Administration, a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
If approved, the federal grant would cover about half the $3.5 million cost to widen and repave Bateman Street between First Avenue and Fourth Street, Rawson Street between Second and Third streets and Third and Fourth streets between Bateman and Rawson streets.
The project proposed for the PWEAA grant appears somewhat larger than the one proposed in the city’s August application for Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) grant funds through the Revitalize Iowa’s Sound Economy (RISE) program.
That state grant, if approved, would cover about $1.7 million of the $2.2 million cost to widen and repave Bateman Street between First Avenue and Fourth Street as well as Third and Fourth streets between Bateman and Rawson streets. The city would match the RISE grant with about $433,000 of local funds.
According to the resolution unanimously approved by the Perry City Council in August, the RISE dollars will be used “to provide improved roadway access to facilitate the retention and expansion of Progressive Foundry and Wiese Industries and the associated job opportunities,” and the resulting “roadway improvements will be dedicated to public use and will remain so dedicated to public use.”
The Perry City Council next meets Monday, Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. in the Clarion Room of the Security Bank Building at 1102 Willis Ave.
