Marion to pay EBH $75,000 for project

By DEB GRUVER

Staff writer

Marion will pay an engineering firm up to $75,000 for its work on a drainage improvement project on Elm and Locust Sts.

On Monday, the city agreed to hire EBH for engineering and construction services as part of the project.

EBH’s costs will not be covered by a state grant the county recently received. The city will pay an additional $69,810 in money or staff time under cost-sharing provisions of the grant.

Council member Zach Collett abstained from voting because he works at EBH. Mayor David Mayfield and council member Ruth Herbel approved the contract. Councilmen Chris Costello and Jerry Kline did not attend the meeting.

Herbel participated in the meeting by phone but caught an error in the four-page contract. EBH said it would send an invoice to Peabody-Burns schools. The district has nothing to do with the project.

“That was left over from another contract for another project,” Darin Neufeld, a vice president at EBH, said.

A Kansas Department of Transportation cost-share program will pay for 70% of long-needed repairs to a culvert on Elm St. and a box bridge on Locust St. plus new curbing on those streets from Lawrence St. to Main St. in Marion.

“It was the fourth time we had applied for the cost-share program,” Neufeld told city council members Monday. “Thank goodness we finally got it.”

The city agreed to put up more money for the project in its fourth application — from a 20% share to a 30% share.