City working on grants to improve livability for Weiser

Have you ever started something, then wished you hadn’t, then ended up being glad you did? Well, that is the situation Cathy and I found ourselves in last Thursday. Our little roadster required some special servicing in Boise, so Cathy and I decided to make a day of it. 

 In looking for something to do, Cathy found a hiking trail on Mores Mountain up by Bogus Basin that she wanted to try. It was only a three-mile loop and promised to have vistas at different points looking out over Treasure Valley, Horseshoe Bend, and the Sawtooths. 

 One thing that hadn’t been adequately factored into the equation was the 500-foot elevation gain over the first half of the hike. For Cathy, going up is not as bad as coming down. And on the backside, most of the descent was in the last half mile. I wasn’t sure we were going to finish once we reached that point. But we did. When we finished and weren’t broken we realized we enjoyed the overall experience. However, next time – elevation will be a major consideration. 

 I thought this week, you should be brought up to speed on some of the projects the City is working on. 

 The City sought out bids for the sidewalk project from the High School to Memorial Park. However, when the bid deadline arrived, no bids had been submitted. We still have the funds and receiving no bids may provide some advantages. We’ll keep you updated.

 In an unexpected development, the LOR Foundation out of Wyoming has picked Weiser as its next project city. LOR is short for Livability, Opportunity, Responsibility. From what I understand they choose a community at a time, to invest in, to enhance livability, and preserve the unique characteristics of the town. Projects are based on the community’s ideas and needs. 

 At this time, they are looking for a local Community Officer to be educated on leading and managing the project(s). The beginning salary is between $65,000 and $80,000 depending on the applicant. If you or someone you know is interested, you can go on their website to https://www.lorfoundation.org/careers/ to read the job description. For now, they are gathering resumes. From what I understand they would like to decide soon. This is an AMAZING opportunity for Weiser! 

 Additionally, the City continues to pursue several grant opportunities. 

 The City has already received $30,000 from the Idaho Blue Cross Foundation to use for projects relating to providing healthy living in Weiser. 

 In addition, we are pursuing a $250,000 grant from the Idaho Department of Commerce to be used in parks to make the community resilient and healthy. We would like to use the funds in the City Park and Memorial Park. Some of the ideas being considered is a walking path around Memorial Park, a permanent cornhole set-up, a mini-soccer area, ping-pong, etc. We will also keep you posted on this item.

 Another item on our plate is a $2,000,000 grant for auxiliary roads to state highways. The City would like to rebuild parts of East Commercial Street. It turns out that when Commercial Street was built it was not constructed to handle the load sizes that are common for today’s commercial trucks. This grant would allow the City to rebuild the weak points in the road and make needed repairs to the Monroe Creek Bridge. This would allow truck traffic to continue to use Commercial Street. Otherwise, the City may be forced to weight restrict Commercial Street forcing truck traffic to go through the residential areas along Main Street and Idaho Street. We would prefer that they continue to use Commercial. 

 You also may be wondering about the project to have electric vehicle chargers installed. Mike Campbell and I went through a series of webinars to apply for federal funding for this project. However, due to other projects and training going on at City Hall, this had to be put on the back burner. Fortunately, funding will be shifted from the federal program to a state program soon. Much of the intense training that has preoccupied City Hall over the past six months is over and we will again be able to focus attention on funding for the EV chargers. Again, we will keep you posted.

 Well, that’s it for this week. There are more things we are working on, but not enough space to elaborate for now. Hope you have a great week!