Dateline: December 5, 2002

City rushes to beat deadline for grant

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

Engineers and city officials worked feverishly this week to apply for a grant that could pay for curb and sidewalk improvements along Fifth Street near the Clarendon Public Schools.

Clarendon aldermen only found out about the grant last Tuesday, November 26, during their regular meeting after it was presented by board consultant Colby Waters. The deadline is 5 p.m. this Friday.

With only three days left to fill out the application, city officials at press time were consulting with engineers, the Childress District TxDOT office, local law enforcement, and the Clarendon ISD administration in order to gather necessary information.

The grant through the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Safe Routes to School Program provides funding for up to $500,000 for improvements within a two-mile radius of a school. The grant covers items such as pedestrian and bicycle crossing improvements, curbs and sidewalks, and widening roadway shoulders.

The grant requires a 20 percent match, which might be waived if the improvements are related to the state highway system. Fifth Street from Koogle Street west is a state farm to market road.

If successful, the city hopes to use the grant to construct curbing and sidewalks along Fifth Street from CISD west to the city limits. Other improvements might also be done on the side roads which connect to Fifth Street near the school and on Bugbee Avenue from Fifth Street to the Clarendon College campus.

City officials will likely be working on the grant right up to the deadline and say they intend to hand-deliver their application to the district TxDOT office Friday.