The Mexico City Council had several items on its agenda Monday that will help a couple projects move forward.

The first was an ordinance authorizing a grant agreement with the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission to obtain a consultant for the downtown one-way streets. The grant is an 80-20 cost-share with money coming from the Transportation Engineering Assistance Program. The city will pay 20% of the costs, or $2,000.

“It’s a study of our one-way streets in our downtown area,” Public Works Director Kensey Russell said. “There’s no perceived outcome for it. It’s just a matter of taking a look at our traffic flow, conversing with some of our downtown businesses to see what may be the most effective approach. It may not change a thing.”

The study will be finished by April, Russel said answering a question from council member Steve Haag.

Why wasn’t a different intersection selected for the traffic study, council member Chris Williams asked.

“Some downtown businesses feel that having a two-way street in front of their business will increase their business traffic, so it is in response to some requests to try to answer that,” Russell said.

This has been an ongoing request for the past three to four years, he said. Grant applications have to include a defined project scope, he added.

AIRPORT RUNWAY LIGHTING

The next three items focused on improvements at the Mexico Memorial Airport.

Runway lighting at one of the airport runways, 18-36, needs to be set further apart from the runway to prevent damage in the winter from plows. There also are issues with wires being chewed by wildlife, Economic Development Director Russell Runge said.

“This will modernize those lights. It will move them five feet out on either side,” he said. The runway currently is only 50-feet wide. It needs to be 60-feet, so at some point in the future we’ll add five feet on either side and the lights will be already in place.”

The project is paid 90% through federal funds and 10% through city funds. The city’s airport improvement consultant Crawford, Murphy and Tilly Inc. recently held a bid opening. Meyer Electric Co. of Jefferson City provided the low bid of $183,235. Work will start within 10 days and should be completed within 35 days, Runge said.

Crawford was approved as the consultant in February for airport improvements. The company has provided services beyond the scope of the original agreement related to the runway lighting, so a supplemental agreement was needed to provide payment. Additional fixed fees are $5,449.86 and construction phase fees will not exceed $46,000. The Federal Aviation Administration grant will cover 90% of the costs, Runge said.

The final ordinance related to runway lighting was an amendment to the State Block Grant Agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation. The original design fees for the runway edge lighting were $22,500. The amendment adds a not to exceed amount of $229,235 for construction funds for the project.

Again, 90% of this is paid through federal funds, with the remaining 10% not to exceed $22,924, which is part of the city’s 2020-21 budget.

All three ordinances were approved 4-0 by the council. Mayor Ayanna Shivers was absent.