The Culver Town Council members considered a proposal from Mike Reese with the Troyer Group to assist the town in the many aspects required within the town’s designation as a Stellar Community.
Reese said there are a lot of components to the grant and other requirements to be considered.
“Now that we’ve had the kickoff meeting for the state agencies there’s a lot of work between updating cost estimates and plans, filling out project applications, assisting the grant administrators with the applications, INDOT designation applications, quarterly reports, and attending meetings,” commented Reese.
Reese explained that the consulting group would be contracted on a per-hour basis not to exceed $11,000 for the OCRA projects and $13,000 for the general Stellar projects for the year 2018.
“We did break it up into two sections. One is for the overall Stellar Communities coordination and the INDOT projects. The other section is specifically for OCRA projects. Based on kickoff there is a chance that OCRA could fund consulting fees for those OCRA projects. We want to have that separate so OCRA could pay for those.”
There is a reimbursable expense allowance which includes prints, copies, and mileage. Those figures will not exceed $600 for OCRA and $1,000 for the general Stellar projects.
If additional services are needed, the council and Troyer Group can revisit the proposal.
Town Manager Jonathan Leist explained that funding will be available for this agreement within the budget or the $2 million Community Development Block Grant that OCRA has set aside for the town.
“We’re still waiting on clarification on whether some of that or all of that may be funded through the $2 million,” noted Leist. “If not, our match for those projects isn’t required for construction so we could use our match toward the planning for those projects as well. Either way we’d have those funds through the grant or with what we’ve budgeted for next year.”
The Culver Town Council unanimously approved the proposal and signed the contract in order to proceed with projects.
