The Holts Summit Board of Aldermen gave final approval Monday to an ordinance accepting a $290,000 federal grant to build a sidewalk and a crosswalk with electric signals along West Simon Boulevard in Holts Summit.
City Administrator Brian Crane said the 80-20 federal grant requires the city of Holts Summit to pay about $72,000 of the project costing $360,000.
The project would extend the current sidewalk an additional 800 feet along the north side of West Simon Boulevard from The Print Shop eastward to North Summit Drive.
A crosswalk with electric "walk-don't walk" signals will extend the sidewalk south across West Simon Boulevard to connect with the newly completed 1,100-foot sidewalk along the west side of South Summit Drive from North Elementary School northward, ending at the intersection of South Summit Drive and West Simon Boulevard.
The West Simon Boulevard sidewalk will connect with the existing sidewalk starting at The Print Shop extending past Moser's Grocery westward to Greenway Drive.
Crane said the city plans to extend the sidewalk northward from that point sometime in the future to nearby subdivisions that already have sidewalks.
"This means youngsters would have a sidewalk all the way from their subdivision to the school," Crane said. He said the city also would like eventually to extend sidewalks from residential areas along North Summit Drive to connect with South Summit Drive that already has sidewalks to North School.
The ordinance approved Monday night authorizes the mayor to enter into a contract with the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department to build the $360,000 West Simon Boulevard project.
Crane said the latest sidewalk extension project means the city of Holts Summit has received $1.3 million in federal grants since 2007 and cost the city only about $200,000 for its share of the work.
The project will be planned this summer and construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2014.
Crane also said attorneys representing the city of Holts Summit and the YMCA of Callaway County are working on a proposed contract between the two entities that would permit construction of a new $475,000 YMCA complex that would include renovations of the current Civic Center at Holts Summit in Greenway Park and a new 6,000-square-foot YMCA exercise facility.