Pleasanton receives $617,000 KDOT grant for street repairs

The grant will allow the city to complete repairs on Ash Street and part of Cedar Street. (Wix file photo)

By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com

PLEASANTON – The city of Pleasanton announced on Wednesday that it had received a grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) that will help jumpstart the city’s street repair program.

The $617,000 grant targets repair of Ash Street and a portion of Cedar Street. The Pleasanton schools are on Ash Street and the condition of the pothole-infested street surface has been a source of many complaints over the past few years.

On Wednesday, City Administrator Becky Hegwald said the awarding of the grant came as a surprise. She said that she applied for the grant this spring, and usually the process usually takes several applications before funds are granted. That KDOT would award the grant on the first application was not expected.

While the news is good, work won’t start on the project immediately. By the time engineers consider the scope of the work, bids won’t be let out until next February.

The scope of work will include:

• Ditch regrading

• Reconstruction of the street base in areas where the base has failed

• Asphalt pavement construction

• Finish grading, seeding, restoration

In November 2023, Pleasanton voters approved a 1-cent sales tax that targets street repair and maintenance. However, instead of opting to proceed with repairs by approving bond financing, the council decided to hold off and make repairs as sale tax money came in, with the first payment coming into city coffers in spring 2024..

Over a year later, the city now has more than $309,000 collected on the street sales tax. When the tax issue was approved by voters, city officials estimated that it would raise about $300,000 a year, and they weren’t far off.

Hegwald said the council is working on what other projects can be done at this point. She said the council may look at making some of the less-traveled streets into gravel roadways, adding that would be better than trying to dodge all of the potholes in the deteriorated surface.

The grant title, City of Pleasanton Street Improvements - Phase I, indicated that KDOT may be willing to make further grants to help the city with its street problem. Hegwald said that the city can apply to KDOT again.