Design and bid documents will be prepared for a street construction project in Walnutport.

Borough council on a unanimous vote last Thursday approved Spotts, Stevens & McCoy to prepare the design and bid documents for the Willow Avenue Community Development Block Grant project.

Borough engineer Jason Newhard said the estimated project cost is about $250,000 to $260,000, and said that the Walnutport Water Authority has agreed to pay the overage.

In December, the borough received a $115,000 grant to be used toward several projects.

The check was a combination of $65,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding, along with $50,000 in NORCO Grant funding.

The $65,000 in CDBG funding will be used toward Willow Avenue street construction, while the $50,000 in Grow NORCO funding will be for a new tractor with boom mower.

Later on at the meeting, borough grant coordinator Mike Wentz said the borough now has $200,000 set aside for the Willow Avenue street construction project.

Wentz said the project get underway in the middle to latter part of 2026, and is a joint effort between the borough and the Walnutport Water Authority.

He said the project will replace the water line, provide new services to the homes, replace a fire hydrant and repave the entire street.

In January 2025, borough council agreed to rescind a motion from the Nov. 7, 2024, meeting to purchase a new tractor with boom mower using the statewide Local Share Account grant up to $182,000.

Afterward, council at its January 2025 meeting agreed to purchase a new tractor with boom mower using the statewide LSA grant (and other grants) up to $224,000.

Wentz, who also serves as the borough’s public works director, explained that as of last year, the John Deere Company is not putting the transmission the borough wanted in that series tractor, so it had to go to a different series and costlier tractor.

The balance will be made up in a trade-in on the borough’s 1995 tractor with a 15-foot boom mower that it uses to cut at the canal. It has been getting harder to get parts for the 1995 mower.