By Kalin Krohe
Panhandle Post

During the regular Alliance City Council meeting, members spoke about the One and Six Year Improvement Plans for the City. The biggest project coming up is the upgrade and renovation to Third Street, which merges in from Highway 2.

Wednesday morning Alliance Deputy City Manager Jeff Sprock told KCOW Radio, “There’s a lot of work that’s been done by the street department and the city’s engineers in upgrading streets over the last six years. This year we’re kind of taking a break on that in preparation for next year’s big project, which is the re-doing of third street. Both the state and the city are going to be spending a lot of money on improving Third Street…re-doing a new overlay and finally getting to the underpass.”

During the council meeting Alliance Mayor Mike Dafney asked if funding was in place for the Third Street project.

City of Alliance Public Works Director Ross Grant said, “We should be in good shape when this project comes due. The timeline I have now is bid letting perhaps in summer of 2019 with work being in the summer and fall of 2020, according to the last time I spoke with the Nebraska Department of Transportation.”

Citizens have approached council member Ryan Reynolds with questions concerning how many lanes Third Street will have, and what will happen to the bricks in the downtown district.

Third Street will continue to have four lanes and the bricks will remain in the downtown area as well, said Ross Grant.

In other business, council approved two proclamations. National FFA Week – Feb. 16-23, and Problem Gambling Awareness Month in March.

Council also had a public hearing for land developments in the municipal code. The Alliance Planning Commission at their meeting Jan. 29 recommended approval of the proposed changes.

You can hear a full recap of the council meeting below.