City of Stout looks toward CDBG grant amidst water issues

Plagued with continuous drainage issues, residents of Stout have spoken out on their frustration over standing water and flooded basements, leading the Stout City Council to look into solutions - including a CDBG grant that could potentially be used for drainage work in town.
 
Stout City Clerk Brooke Spencer says the council has been talking about the need to find a solution to the drainage issue since 2016, and that she’s glad the council is taking steps forward to help concerned citizens.
“Stout is, unfortunately, a very flat town,” Spencer said. “Over the years, nearby farms have done some tiling and that water has nowhere to go so it comes to Stout, and then it has nowhere to flow out of town so it stays for a long time. Now we have a lot of standing water around town and flooded basements, which is rough on our infrastructure, but in a town of only 224 residents, there’s just not a huge budget to make all these improvements we need.”
 
Over the last few months, the council has been in contact with INRCOG about grants available; representatives of INRCOG suggested the city apply for a CDBG grant (community development block grant) through the IEDA (Iowa Economic Development Authority). The CDBG grant is a 50/50 matching grant, where the IEDA matches 50 percent of the project cost, and the city would be responsible for the other 50 percent.
 
In order to be eligible to apply for the grant, the City of Stout arranged for a study to be done by Snyder and Associates engineering firm which would outline the needs throughout town.
 
Read the full story in this week's Grundy Register. Subscribe by calling (319) 824-6958 or clicking here. 
 

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