Louisa mayor authorized to apply for grant for refurbishing project

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

LOUISA — The Louisa City Council authorized Mayor Harold Slone during its regular meeting last Tuesday, Jan. 12, to apply for funding for a refurbishing project at Fire Station No. 1.

Slone noted that city council decided a couple of years ago to get some design plans for a project that involves the main fire station, the police department and city hall.

Slone said the roof leaks at Fire Station No. 1 and that the police department, built in 1939, is “not functional at all.”

“It’s just a makeshift place, really,” Slone said. “They do the best they can with it. They really don’t have a decent bathroom to use. They come over here, the police officers do, and use our bathroom.”

The plans requested by council are more of a “concept” than an actual architectural design, Slone said.

“The plans included a new roof for the fire station, tearing that old part off of the fire station, building a new building that connected city hall and the fire station, and in that portion would be a large, new meeting room that could be used for multiple things,” he said. “Police could use it for training, the fire department could use it for training, we would use it one night a month as a city council meeting room. It also involved maybe flip-flopping over here and moving the police over where the water office is for parking reasons and security reasons, and moving the water people over here.”

Slone said a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) would be a possible funding option for the fire department. Applications for the CDBG will be available March 3, he said, and funding has increased from $500,000 to $750,000. If the city is approved for the grant, it would have to contribute $75,000 for the fire station project, he said.

“Now here’s the problem: CDBG funds cannot be spent on city hall, period,” Slone said. “It is illegal. It can be spent on fire stations; it can’t be spent on city halls or police departments, if you can believe it.”

The mayor said he had “looked everywhere” for funding for city hall portion of the project.

“There are none that I have found,” he said, “and I have asked everybody.”

Slone said state officials “want cities to build their city halls with their tax dollars.”

Council voted to allow Slone to apply for the CDBG in March for the first phase of the project, which includes the fire station and adding a building in between and moving city hall over there.

In other business, council members approved a change order to the sewer project currently under construction on Lock Avenue. The change, which involves reconnecting smaller lines to a new 8-inch line, will increase the total project cost by $133,260.