Jasper taking steps to repair U.S. 231/Newton Street

The City of Jasper and Indiana Department of Transportation are taking steps to repair U.S. 231/Newton Street.

Monday, the city announced a plan to upgrade the aged water line that would included improvements to U. S. 231/Newton Street.

According to the announcement, the city has applied for 50/50 matching grant through the U.S. Economic Development Authority to fund the work. Through the EDA grant and local funding from the Jasper Water Utility, the work could take place in 2018 and 2019.  

Through the process of updating an aged water line, work to improve the state sections of the road would occur from the “Y” to Newton Street at the light in front of the courthouse and then from Third Street to 30th Street on U.S. 231/Newton. Also included in the grant application but not covered in conjunction with INDOT would be a water main replacement on 30th Street from the Newton Street intersection to Mill Street.

The Jasper Utility Service Board will consider local funding to match the grant at its meeting this evening.  

“This has been a collaborative effort,” said Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz. “The 231 water line has been a part of our future plans for several years but we knew that the city’s work needed to be coordinated with INDOT work.  We’ve been in discussions with INDOT since 2015 and they have budgeted for the project.  The city then reached out to EDA officials to determine if our water line project met their guidelines and we were encouraged last week to file an application for the water line upgrade.”

In addition to the Jasper Water Utilities, INDOT and EDA, Seitz thanked the Jasper Street, Engineering and Legal Departments and Indiana 15 Regional Planning Commission for the cooperation.

Following tonight’s USB meeting, the Jasper Common Council will consider the resolution for the local funding at their meeting on Wednesday.

The approval process for the EDA grant is expected to take several weeks.

Seitz emphasizes that it will take a significant amount of engineering and coordination between local, state and federal governments in the next couple of years to complete the project.