City lands grant for canopy work

By Staff
Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
The canopies and sidewalks on Main Street in Hartselle will get a facelift in the foreseeable future thanks to the award of a $480,000 Transportation Enhancement (TE) Grant by the Alabama Department of Transportation.
Mayor Dwight Tankersley said he learned of the grant's approval through a call from the governor's office, which he received on Feb. 22.
"This is good news for the city," Tankersley stated. "The canopies have been in disrepair for a long time. We have had cost estimates of $90,000 to $95,000 to repair and clean them. With this grant we will be able to do much more with about the same amount of money obligated as a 20 percent local match."
Tankersley said the grant will be used to remove the flat roof of the existing canopies and replace it with a new slanted metal roof. Only the framework of the old canopies will be used. It will also replace the sidewalks and some curbs and provide cutouts for landscaping.
"I'm hopeful we'll have enough money to redo the street lighting," he added.
Previously, the city had applied for a grant to make sidewalk improvements in other parts of Central Business District. Those applications were denied in 2004 and 2005.
Tankersley said the city could have resubmitted the latest application but instead he and council members decided to look at other options.
"We met with representatives of an engineering firm and Terry Acuff, our grant consultant, and asked them to look at our needs from a practical standpoint," Tankersley said. "We asked them to write a grant application that would get funded."
Drawings of the proposed improvements may be viewed on the city's web site, hartselle.org.
The city received a transportation enhancement grant for repairs and improvements to The Depot in 2003. The letting of bids for that work is expected to occur later this month.