Urban Renewal Board Recommends Sending Back Fed Grant For 1st Street

The Columbia Gateway Urban Renewal Agency Board has decided to recommend to The Dalles City Council to return a $1.6 million federal grant issued ten years ago for the First Street Streetscape project because it can be finished quicker and for less money without it.  Board members heard a report from Travis Kruger from consultant HDR.  Kruger said the complexities of using the federal grant would add two-to-three years to the project with an estimated cost to the City of $5.1 million, while proceeding without it would only cost $4.3 million.  The Council will receive the recommendation at a September meeting.  The project would reconstruct First Street between Union and Laughlin.