Marion County Commission will be asked to overlay the county’s portion of North Cedar Street and Eisenhower Drive.

Todd Heitschmidt, president of Marion Economic Development, Inc., asked Marion City Council Monday for support of a resolution for the street improvements. The City of Marion is planning improvements for portions of North Cedar Street and all of Eisenhower Drive from Main Street to Kellison Street, where the city limits ends.

The resolution stated since the city’s bid from Smoky Hill, LLC, general contractor of the project, was considerably less than estimated by engineers, and the city is already paying a mobilization fee for the company to work on the streets, the county should take advantage of the opportunities and have the remainder of the streets resurfaced.

The resolution continued that the city contributes approximately $181,000 to the county’s road and bridge budget and approximately $556,000 to the county’s general fund.

Heitschmidt said he would present the resolution to the county commission at Friday’s meeting.

City Administrator David Mayfield commented there is a stimulus package available to smaller community for the purpose of projects like this. Those funds would only apply to RS (rural secondary) routes, which would only include Cedar Street.

The city’s engineers, Kirkham Michael, are putting together a cost estimate for the additional work should the county decide to do it.

Mayfield also reported a cost estimate was obtained from the engineers regarding the engineering and construction of an additional block on Eisenhower Drive and one block on North Cedar, and one block of ditch cleaning on North Cedar Street. The cost estimate was $175,000 for construction and engineering which Mayfield believed was too high.

An engineer has to provide plans for anything to do with the project because the city obtained grant funds and a Kansas Department of Transportation loan.