Marseilles aims to replace downtown streets, sidewalks through grant applications

Downtown Marseilles could see all new streets, curbs, gutters and sidewalks, helping to make downtown buildings handicapped accessible, if the grant applications the city is seeking are successful.

The Marseilles City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously in favor of a resolution of support that will accompany an application for one of those grants. The Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program grant would help to pay for part of the city’s downtown revitalization effort.

If funded, the project’s improvements would be spread out over two phases, Mayor Jim Hollenbeck said.

We’ll see what happens.”

—  Jim Hollenbeck, Marseilles mayor

It also would allow for decorative features, such as decorative but useful light posts on sidewalks and having the trees now in planters be replanted in areas cut from the concrete pavement, making them easier to maintain.

The application for ITEP grant, which would require a 20% match from the city for the cost of phase two, must be submitted by the end of this month.

If approved, the grant could be the second the city received to assist with the Main Street improvements. Marseilles also sought a Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunities grant – that one requiring the city cover 25% of the costs – to help pay for phase one of the project.

Hollenbeck said that the results of that grant application usually are announced in the spring.

“We’re looking for two separate grants for two separate projects,” Hollenbeck said. “We decided to break it into phases to keep the price down because we felt it would be more likely to be awarded – say, $1 million each for two projects rather than $5 million for one.

“We felt that having a smaller project might increase our odds. We’ll see what happens.”

The council also approved the Planning Commission’s recommendation for amendments to the city’s zoning ordinance, giving it guidelines to follow for any solar- and wind-energy projects that may come up in the future.

Hollenbeck, who said the La Salle County guidelines were used as a template for the new rules, said that although no such projects were in the offing, the city now has a procedure on file to follow should one come about.