Lewisburg’s over $700,000 of CARES Act funded projects continue, per an update from City Manager Misty Hill on Oct. 19.
Thanks to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020, cities in Greenbrier County were reimbursed as employees continued doing their jobs and the city spent money on public health precautions between March 1, 2020, and December 30, 2020.
In July, Hill explained that the city had to spend the funds by December 31, 2021. At the time, Councilmember John Little noted “If we don’t use it, we’re going to lose it.” By the October Lewisburg City Council meeting, many of the projects have made good progress moving forward.
“It’s unfortunate how we received that money, because of COVID, but each city is blessed to be able to do some things they weren’t able to do,” said Mayor Beverly White. “Thank you so much, all of you guys, for all your work.”
Lewisburg approved a spending plan for the $726,537.01 worth of CARES Act funding in July.
Hill highlighted the status of a long list of CARES Act projects, including:
– An AstroTurf baseball field was previously completed in Hollowell Park.
The AstroTurf field. |
Hill explained each project in detail:
– “In the [City Hall] renovation, we have found that one good thing with [turning] the power off on Stratton Alley—City Hall supplies power to the stoplight on Route 219. With that said, we do have our generator. It’s in, but we haven’t put it in place. One good thing about having a generator for City Hall is that we’ll always have a red light working down there.”
– “For the ball field dugouts and the ADA bathroom we’re at 85% completion—we are waiting on a chopper for the septic tank. I’ll let y’all figure out what a chopper is. … The door locks [have] been ordered. We’re waiting on the installation.”
– “The walking track lights have been completed. We got a huge compliment [from] everyone that utilizes that walking track at night … because as you walk, it gets brighter, and then it keeps getting brighter. I guess it’s like cheering you on.”
– “The next thing [for the] Pickleball court is to pave the court. It’s four layers of pavement that will go on that court, … one layer at a time. Then they have to laser the court, [then] apply the second layer laser set and make it beautiful. That’s coming underway. … We received $10,000 last Thursday from the Pickleball group. We’re getting ready to get an additional $50,000 on Monday from the Pickleball group. They are also looking at doing a large upgrade to flowers and trees and shrubs around the Pickleball court area.”
More equipment for the skatepark and a new Pickleball field is inbound. |
– “The lighting for the batting cages [has] been completed. For the Pickleball lighting, the conduits have been installed, we’re just waiting on the electrician to come in and put everything together. And that’s the same thing for the skatepark.”
– “The paving equipment [has arrived] and that’s to do the lining and striping on city streets.”
– “The two dugouts for softball—we have one completion and, for the other one, the pad has been poured. We’re waiting on fencing.”
– “The two football platforms have been completed, but we are waiting until the weather gets a little worse so that we can tear the old one down. We just have a lot of other projects that we need [public works crew’s] time on … We can do this at a later time.”
– “The football storage and mini shelter [are nearly done] if you have been out there, it is almost under the roof, it is looking great. So that was nice.”
The new storage building and stands for the hill are underway. |
– For “winterizing the bathroom,” the plan is to “work on that but we’re trying to get all the other stuff, the flooring and everything,” complete first.
– More pay relating to the COVID-19 pandemic for city employees is no longer expected without another bill. Hill explained “We no longer applied COVID sick pay. The hazard pay has already been distributed. Then the reimbursement supplies have already been done. Computers are already [upgraded].”
– “We were able to secure funding for the skatepark edition for the ramp. I did speak with Grant Burton, our insurance agent and all we have to do is put proper signage up. And he really wanted a 5-foot platform to when they come up and come onto the ramp that gives them enough space. It gives him 9 feet from the platform to the fence line. So we were able to work that out. [Public Works Director Tony Legg] and I worked with the skatepark parents to really collaborate together on getting this done for the kids. We were able to fund it at $15,000 but it came in at a $24,000 bid, so the skateboard parents fundraised $9,000 in a matter of hours. That was a very quick fundraiser.”
After dismissing the final $100,000 allocated to a broadband improvement project, Hill said “that gets us to the total of any funds remaining [equaling] zero. We do have in there a contingency on City Hall at $44,106.45.” Hill also noted she’s “just really excited—COVID has been really hard for everybody but having the CARES Act has been something amazing for our parks because we don’t normally have these funds. I’m grateful that councils agreed to do all this.”
Hill also noted the city had “a workers comp claim—one employee got poison ivy really severe [while cleaning the park fence. They] unfortunately had to seek medical care for that, but [they] did get all the poison ivy off. … It looks good. They’re doing a great job.”
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