Four Towns Get Grants To Help Roads, Sewers, Senior Centers

Four North Idaho cities will split $1.5 million in state grants to pave dusty roads, fix leaking sewers and boost feeble water pressure.

Spirit Lake, Dover, Athol and Post Falls have been awarded so-called community development block grants to fix problems they otherwise couldn’t afford to. Roughly $7.5 million in block grants, funded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, was approved for 26 cities by Gov. Phil Batt last week.

Spirit Lake was the only community in the state to get two grants: $500,000 for street work and $139,085 for construction of a senior citizen center.

The street work includes paving about two miles of the city’s streets. The money would also help drain storm water from the city.

Spirit Lake would fund the remaining $447,000 of the project through city work, savings and possibly a bond. Voters turned down the bond in February, but the city is likely to try again.

Rapid growth, Mayor Paul Korman wrote in the grant application, “leaves the city running to catch up after years of declining population.”

The city and local residents are contributing $102,000 in labor, cash and donated materials toward the new senior center.

Dover, near Sandpoint, was also awarded $500,000. The money will help the Rocky Point Sewer District build a new sewage treatment system. Four years ago, sewage wastewater was leaking up through the septic drainfield that now serves as a treatment system. The state Division of Environmental Quality gave the district until August to begin construction on a new system.

Last May, sewer district voters approved $450,000 in revenue bonds to fund the balance of the work.

Athol was awarded $309,075 to boost water pressure for firefighting. The money will replace small water lines and build a 300,000-gallon water reservoir. The city has saved $120,000 for the project.

On May 23, Athol voters will be asked to approve a $70,000 “local match” for the project. The bond would be paid off from a water rate increase approved in January.

“It’s not going to cost them any more. We just need the bond election passed (to get the state grant),” she said.

Post Falls was awarded $95,095 to expand its senior citizens center. The money will be used to expand dining and kitchen areas and add handicapped-accessible bathrooms. Businesses and residents have already donated more than $50,000 in labor, materials and cash.