City officials agreed at a special meeting held last Wednesday, April 22, to revisit the issue. They anticipate spending around $144,000 to fix stormwater issues and widen the street. The preliminary construction estimates submitted by Lewis-Bade, Inc., include fees for engineering ($14,800.29), inspection ($11,099.92) and a 10 percent contingency ($10,672.35). The figures were submitted last October when city officials were looking to control erosion problems beginning near St. Paul's United Church of Christ and running downhill near the Marthasville Ambulance building. Since that time, Mayor Dale Verges said he also wants to see the street be widened, especially near the top of the hill next to the church's cemetery. He is concerned there isn't much room for vehicles to avoid one another should they meet at a blind spot. "It's too narrow there, it's too dangerous," Verges explained. While the city may not have the funding available to complete the project in its entirety, aldermen have decided to break the project into stages to avoid one large expense. ð "The idea was to get phases and do this with as little impact on the budget as possible," Verges said. "We can't spend all of that right now." Phase one is expected to cost around $37,949.18 for installing storm inlets and piping to take care of stormwater on the north side of South Street. Phase two, expected to cost $23,702.26, would focus on building concrete curbs to direct water to the inlets. The final phase would be the costliest portion at $57,219.73 and include as asphalt overlay and concrete curbs on the south side of the street. Verges also indicated the city would like to include an alternate phase where construction crews would relocate water lines and pipe stormwater from the top of the hill to a nearby creek rather than fix the problem down the road. Verges said the city has around $140,000 available for the project in the transportation and capital improvement budgets, money generated from separate half-cent sales taxes. The money available in the capital improvement budget already has reached around $50,000 since voters approved the measure last April, according to Verges. However, officials want to refrain from depleting both funds in case other issues arise in the city. "If we're going to do this street, we want to get this water line done so we don't have to go back and tear up the street later on," Verges said. "We want to do it right." Should the city decide to move forward with the project, Verges is optimistic work could begin this year. He believes the entire project could be completed in 2010. "We want to do all of this, but it might have to be done in phases to keep the budget intact," Verges emphasized.