Leaders aim to use leftover grant funds

North Perry Village government leaders are hoping that grant funds left over from stream restoration work performed last year can be used for similar purposes in 2019.

Mayor Ed Klco told Village Council at its recent meeting that money remains from a grant that North Perry received from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to perform floodplain restoration on a stream located west of Townline Road.

He learned about the availability of unused funding from Maurine Orndorff, watershed coordinator for the Lake County Soil and Water District. The district helped North Perry obtain $120,000 in 2017 through a 319 Grant awarded by the Ohio EPA. The grant is named after a numbered section of the U.S. Clean Water Act authorizing the program.

Lake County Soil and Water District also played a key role in planning and executing Phase 1 work on a waterway called McKinley CreekFrontal Lake Erie. Goals of the project include restoring 900 linear feet of floodplain; restoring natural flow to McKinley Creek-Frontal Lake Erie;, stabilizing 1,800 linear feet of streambank using bio-engineering; and removing/treating 1.2 acres of invasive species and plant native grasses; trees; shrubs; and live stakes, or cuttings from dormant woody vegetation, in riparian areas.

A contractor, village employees and the Lake County Soil and Water District performed work in September on the project, which Klco described as “a big success.”

Orndorff, in a March 11 email to The News-

Herald, confirmed that the work performed last year in North Perry came in under budget. The original project is nearly finished and should wrap up this spring or summer, she said.

It’s anticipated that the original project will come in at about 60 percent to 70 percent of the original

$213,192 estimate, she said. Those percentages translate to a cost of between about $127,915 and $149,234.

“Lake SWCD is determining if the remaining available funds can be utilized to extend this project or do similar work in the same watershed,” she said. “We’re still working on a possible expansion of this project, so we don’t have a plan or schedule in any form at this point.”

The city also provided a

local match consisting of $64,000 in cash and $15,340 worth of in-kind services to help acquire the 319 Grant in 2017. Orndorff said the city would not be responsible for any additional expenses if remaining funds from the grant are used for more work this year.

Klco and council members agreed that they would like to see the 319 Grant funding allocated to the maximum extent for its intended purposes in the city.