Discovery of $100,000 grant money to be applied toward Lewisport’s main Lift Station
At the Lewisport City Council meeting, February 16th, Mayor Chad Gregory made an announcement that he was surprised to find two older grants totaling $100,000. Those are available to rehabilitate Lewisport’s main lift station.
“That grant (the clean water grant) was kind of old and forgotten about it,” Gregory said. “I made an error. It was a good error. We were going to take covid money and rehab this lift station, which is going to be about $90,000 plus dollars. It just fell out of sight and out of mind.
I had a meeting with Matt Curtis (co-owner of Bluegrass Engineering) today and we were discussing that. He said it’s probably going to be more than $90,000 and I said, ‘Well, we’ve got covid money’ and he slid two sheets of paper in front of me and said, ‘You need to sign this.’ One was for $90,000 and the other one was for $10,000 –it was money we applied for and I had forgotten about it.
I know what happened. Brent Wigginton (previous City Administrator) and I were working on that and then covid hit. We just held off on everything and tried to get through the best we could. So we’ve got $100,000 that we didn’t know about. The paperwork was dated, it was 2021, but the money was still there. We’re going to have $100,000 to rehab that lift station.”
It was stated that they already have some quotes on some panels for the lift station rehab and are waiting on pumps and a rail system. The panels will be $12,000 installed. The most expensive will be the pump and the rail system.
Hancock Community Kitties Update
Veronica Taylor, cofounder of Community Kitties, announced that Hancock Community Kitties and Shelter Supporters will be resuming their spay/neuter clinics. They will be co-sponsoring and organizing these clinics for cats only but hope to be adding dogs at a later date.
“Hancock Community Kitties is still going strong,” Veronica said. “In the year of 2022, we spayed and neutered 156 cats in Hancock County and it costed $5,600 – raised through donations and people providing support for us taking their cats.
On Thursday, March 16th, we’re going to have a cat spay/neuter clinic sign up and drop off at Jumpin’ Jacks (in Lewisport) and I’ll be putting up flyers around town to let people know.
Daviess County Animal Control invited us to start bringing cats to them on a regular basis through their reduced rate clinic. I’m hoping that this will be a monthly or bi-monthly occurrence. Right now we plan to take 2 rabbits and 13 cats.”
Special registration signups will be in the indoor dining area outside of Subway at Jumpin’ Jacks on: March 2nd, 4-7 p.m.; March 4th, 10 a.m.-noon and March 5th, 1-3 p.m. Spots are available on a first-come basis. Please do not bring your cat to the signup.
Beer Wagon Preparations for Heritage Festival
The first ordinance was read in preparation for a “beer wagon” area at the 2023 Lewisport Heritage Festival. The next reading will occur at the March council meeting.
In the ordinance, is an aerial view of the downtown area that will be designated as an entertaining center. That area will be declared an “entertainment center destination” and specialized cups will be ordered.
Flood Zones
The council discussed the flood zones for houses in Lewisport and the recent presence of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the area. “They’ve been around (FEMA),” Gregory said. “They have made some revisions but we don’t know yet.”
It was stated that City Administrator Jason Roberts will be attending a zoom meeting sometime during the week of February 26-March 4th in order to gather more details. “We’ll stay ahead of it and let people know the best we can,” Gregory said.
By Jennifer Wimmer
