NEW BLOOMFIELD, Mo. - The Board of Aldermen approved a change to its street and stormwater improvement project Monday.
All board members except for Gary Hoelscher attended Monday's meeting.
The road project includes asphalt overlay of streets around town, including Oak Street, Birch Avenue and Old Highway 54, as well as new culverts under Elm Street and Glenwood Drive.
Stephen Lin, a representative from Allstate Consultants LLC, came to discuss the project.
"When we started this project, it was a goal to widen Chestnut Street and to improve two-way traffic for that street," Lin said.
In easement negotiations, the Providence Baptist Church requested driveway improvements. The city included those improvements in the project bid, but then the church requested additional improvements related to stormwater.
"At that point, we thought it was best just to not proceed with getting the easements on the church's side of the property and just proceed with widening Chestnut Street on the west side," Lin said.
With the driveway improvements taken out of the project, the city will instead pave Meadow Lake Drive.
"That was a pretty significant deduction of approximately $16,000-17,000," Lin said. "With that money freed up the only street that was not targeted for pavement or repaving was Meadow Lake Drive."
With the changes, the project budget is now $693,292.75, for construction engineering services and other professional services.
The city is using bond proceeds, as well as reimbursement from the New Bloomfield Fire Protection District for a driveway improvement, to fund the project.
The board also heard updates from the city superintendent and the Holts Summit Police Department.
In his update, Holts Summit Police Chief Kyle McIntyre explained how COVID-19 has impacted the police department, which provides police service to New Bloomfield.
"I've had to quarantine a couple of officers a couple of different times for possible exposure," he said.
The department has hired two new officers but still has one open position.