Montreal council seeks grant surveys

MONTREAL, Wis. — With $1 million in grant funding on the line, the Montreal City Council decided Tuesday to make a final effort to collect the remaining income surveys needed to qualify for Community Development Block Grant funding.

“Right now, we’re very close to having three of the four streets we looked at being qualified. I think we only needed eight more surveys to be completed,” said Art Bahr, with the city’s engineering firm, who appeared at the meeting via telephone.

The income surveys are needed to determine whether the project areas would be eligible for CDBG funds through the Wisconsin Department of Administration for water, sewer and street work on the selected streets.

Bahr said Bessemer and Ontario streets in Montreal and McCrossen in Gile will likely qualify for the grants — but only if the survey data is obtained.

“If we get them back and they’re the incomes we expect they’re going to be, it would qualify you for a million dollar grant to work on those roads,” Bahr said.

A fourth street, Minnesota Avenue, likely won’t meet the necessary income requirements, Bahr said.

The survey was likely needed by Thursday, according to Bahr, so he can submit it by the state’s Monday deadline.

The city already had someone hand-deliver the surveys to the eight property owners, city clerk Sue Lesky said, but the council decided the number was small enough — and the potential grant money was large enough — that another effort was worth it.

In other action, the council:

—Agreed to find out the cost of a feasibility study examining the possibility of a transportation fee on property owners to help fund city road work.

—Approved the results of the city’s 2019 audit, which Mayor Erik Guenard told the Daily Globe after the meeting had an unqualified opinion. Although the audit suggested several things the city could change or improve, Guenard said city staff were either working on correcting them or they were just the realities of only having two staff members. The council also agreed to seek bids for the city’s next audit contract.

—Decided variances weren’t actually needed on two requests to build garages on properties without primary homes on them. The decision is contingent on Scott Kuklinski consulting with city staff on the culvert he will be installing as part of a garage construction project on property he owns that is adjacent to his home and Paul Samardich agreeing to a land swap for a city-owned property between Samardich’s home and the lot he was initially looking to build the garage on.

—Approved posting a job for the city’s office assistant position.