The City of Kalona was recently approved to enter contract negotiations with Enhance Iowa for a grant that could bring as much as $800,000 into the city’s community center project. On Friday, City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh and other city representatives will meet with the contract committee in Des Moines to develop the framework for what the grant will look like. The grant will then come back to the Kalona City Council for acceptance before returning to Enhance Iowa for formal approval on April 8th.

Schlabaugh says the Enhance Iowa funds will be coming at an opportune time, as the city prepares for the bid process, “We had a little bit of a setback when some prices came in a little bit higher than what we had budgeted, so we had to kind of reevaluate. But the overall footprint of the project is still very much in line with what was proposed. The committee’s happy with where the project’s at right now as far as the layout. Hopefully we get to bid and get a good bid climate, and we’re able to break ground here in the very near future.” In spite of the increased costs, the city is not expected to eliminate anything from the project’s plans. Schlabaugh is hopeful the architects will attend the next Kalona City Council meeting to present their bid specifications and plan approvals, so the project can formally go out to bid. The total estimated cost of the project is $4.3 million.