Monterey will apply for a downtown improvement grant to upgrade some 19 street lights in the downtown area.
But Monday’s decision came with concerns. Alderman Jamie Phillips questioned where the 25 percent match on the $150,000 grant would come from. Phillips said the town has bigger priorities.
“As a citizen of the town, you get tired of seeing all of the little projects being done when you’ve asked for major projects to be done and are being avoided for years,” Phillips said. “And people have complained about the same things over and over and over, but we keep finding other things to do.”
The town would have a three-year window to replace the street lights should the town receive the grant. Monterey Mayor Alex Garcia said this may be the best chance the town will have to upgrade the street lights.
“I would like to say we can wait three years to do the lights,” Garcia said. “And if we budget every year, then we have enough money to do it. But this is the only opportunity we are going to get to do the lights for a quarter of the price. And if anybody has seen the lights there, I don’t know if they are gonna last three years.”
The 19 lights stand between Polar Street and Chestnut Avenue. Garcia said 50 percent of the grant would go to façade upgrades for some of the downtown businesses.
Aldermen voted in favor of applying for the grant, except Phillips, who voted against. The town will hear back about the grant in December.
In other business, the aldermen approved to surplus an estimated 10-acre property across from a dump station off of Old Walton Road. Garcia said a neighboring property approached the city with an interest in purchasing the property. Garcia said the town could not sell the property to the owner directly, but could send the property to bid, as the portion of the property has not been used for quite some time.
The board approved a contract for the 2026 fireworks show.
The board reviewed bids to replace a ramp at the health clinic. The board came to the conclusion that the remap would likely not be long enough to be ADA-compliant. The board did not award a bid and opted to resurface the ramp until the town could figure out what requirements would be needed for a new ramp.
