WILMINGTON — A road project will gets a big boost from a grant.
During his report at Thursday’s Wilmington City Council meeting, Safety/Service Director Brian Shidaker informed council that they were selected to receive the Small City Program Funds from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT).
The grant will be used to cover the Davids Drive reconstruction project.
“We received $2 million in federal and state funding. Our local match, so far, is $105,263,” said Shidaker. “This is the first time the City of Wilmington has applied for those grant dollars. I honestly thought it was going to be an uphill battle because there were 19 other cities applying for, what they told me was, $10 million. I feel though that we’re fortunate to be able to get $2 million out of that pot.”
He told council that this would be a slower process, with the designing not occurring until 2021 and construction occurring in 2022.
“This was the first grant we applied for. There will be other grants we will apply for to put on top of that because Davids Drive is going to be a total reconstruction; unfortunately, not just a simple repaving,” he said, adding the early estimates on that could be $5 million to complete it. “This is one heck of a start.”
Davids Drive was reclassified as a major collector street, making it eligible for federal and state grant money. Wilmington is one of only two cities in the district eligible for funding through ODOT’s Small Cities Program.
