PONDERAY — The City Council unanimously approved several purchases, including an additional $142,537 for the Lakeshore Connection project at its Monday meeting.

KayLeigh Miller, Ponderay’s planning director, said the geotechnical work found a significant amount of groundwater in the area and funding from the 2020 BUILD grant has run out. The funding will come from the city’s newly approved and implemented local option tax, which Mayor Steve Geiger said has already generated $50,000 for the city. 

“They hit groundwater quickly and so much of it we needed to revise how to go about the retaining wall,” Miller said.

The council approved an application for the 2025 BUILD grant at its Dec. 1 meeting, which is due at a later date in January. Miller said the city and project designers, Welch Comer, are nearing a 60% completion of the design for the underpass. 

“At this point, you’re kind of committed, aren't you? It’s got to be done,” Geiger said. “They spent basically $1.7 million to get where we're at. Seems crazy, but it does take a lot of money with all the different agencies and testing, things like that.” 

The council also approved a request for proposal for the Brownfields cleanup grant, following instructions from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s Steve Gill which the council received Dec. 15. That project is planned to clean up the former Panhandle Smelting and Refining Company site, removing the lead and other harmful metals from the soil.