City pursuing state grant funding for Texas St. road work

The city of Graham is looking at grant funding to assist with a street reconstruction project for Texas Street through the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Community Development Block Grant program.

The Graham City Council met Thursday, Aug. 8 and were given a presentation from City Manager Eric Garretty regarding funding a potential street reconstruction project for Texas Street.

“The city recently completed water main construction along a major segment of Texas Street. By placing the new water infrastructure in place, we reduce the possibility of having to cut the street to make repairs to the waterline, which makes Texas Street a prime candidate for a major roadway construction project,” Garretty said.

The city of Graham completed a replacement project for the Texas Street waterline replacement project in September 2023 utilizing TxCDBG funds. The Graham City Council in October 2020 approved a resolution to allow a grant management firm to forward the grant application to TDA and the city was approved for the grant in 2021. 

The city manager said the street serves as a major north to south thruway and serves as a feeder street for the Graham ISD campuses. 

The grant funds a maximum of $750,000. A minimum of $75,000, or a 10% match, is required from the city. The grant is competitive and the city is not automatically awarded the grant.

The application deadline for the TxCDBG program is Sunday, Dec. 1 for the upcoming 2025-2026 application cycle. 

The Community Development Fund category of the TxCDBG program is the largest. Most projects funded in the category are for water/waterwater infrastructure, street and drainage improvements and housing activities.

Applications are scored and finalized in December 2024 and January 2025. Grant awards will be announced for the grant cycle in fall 2025.

The project was presented to the board as a reconstruction of the roadway from Old Jacksboro Road to Hillcrest Drive, but was shortened from Hillcrest Drive to Calaveras Street.

“I think that portion from Calaveras to Hillcrest is in pretty decent shape, relative to the rest of Texas Street. I mean, we didn’t do any waterline work from Calaveras to Hillcrest, didn’t tear up streets, didn’t do all of that,” Council member Jeff Dickinson said. “...I think it just reduces the overall impact to us and I don’t know proportionately what that portion of street is, ...but I do think it’s worth looking at.”

Funding using this grant method narrowly defines what the city can use the money on, according to Garretty.

“It specifically says that overlay and seal coat are not eligible. And I would mention that this is the most expensive type of street construction,” he said.

The city manager is estimating the project cost will be between $1 million and $1.5 million, which is driven up due to a number of factors, one of which is the fact that the road has no roadway base.

“We would be starting from scratch, milling everything up and starting over to do the roadway base, which is very expensive,” Garretty said. “The number of cross-street intersections drives up the price of the project for this because the cross-street intersections all have to be leveled up differently to make sure that the grades on those cross street intersections don’t interfere with the flow of stormwater.”

Garretty said with this type of grant funding there are strict reporting and engineering requirements which can also contribute to increased costs. The city manager said the city would need to commit as much as $750,000 potentially for the project.

“If I’m right and this project is more expensive and you want to go ahead with it, the potential exists that for a given year you would have to wipe out everything else that is on the capital improvement plan and do only Texas Street,” Garretty said. “If Randall’s right and it’s lower than that you would only be looking at half of that money, $300,000-$350,000.”

A cash commitment from the city was discussed and could be possible, but the city would be hindered in its regular street maintenance completed throughout the year.

“We could use our money for a two-year period, spread it out over a two-year period, and just get it done. The advantage of that over the grant funding is the city controls the timing,” Garretty said. “I think, on a cash option like this, people would see if we invested, we could do it in phases, but just do even less (on) the number of blocks, and then no grant administrators required, or no grant post requirements.”

The city can choose to decline the grant if the cost is too high, but declining it could impact their competitiveness for future grants of the type.

The council approved placing the establishment of the project on a future agenda, retaining a grant writer and applying when the grant funding window opens.