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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — JULY 8, 2024 10 2024 regular City Council meeting, Council approved the Professional Services Agreement with Bolton & Menk for design, grant application and construction administration. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen explained since then, staff has been made aware, from representatives of the CDBG program, that the program will not be available for this project in 2024 due to limited staffing resources. Bolton & Menk has suggested that the City consider pursuing the MnDNR Outdoor Recreation Grant program to assist with funding, providing a 50% match on construction costs and to allow the project to still be constructed in 2024. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen reported a competitive application was submitted to the MnDNR Outdoor Recreation Grant program on April 1, 2024. Staff recently found out that the MnDNR Outdoor Recreation Grant program received $16.5 million in grant requests for an available $4.6 million of funding. Unfortunately, this project was not selected for funding this year. With the design and construction documentation work that has already been completed for this project, it is ready for public bidding, if desired. Bidding of the project does not commit to construction of the project and will allow staff to assess potential next steps and economies of scale with the park projects identified in 2025. Councilmember Fabel asked if there would be any cost to submitting a grant for this project. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen stated there would be some administrative fees to apply for the next round of grants. Councilmember Fabel explained he supported the City applying for another round of grants. Councilmember Holden questioned if Peter Lindstrom at the Met Council could be contacted to see if there was funding for this project. Mayor Grant supported this recommendation given the fact the CDBG grants did not come through and the fact that this was an underserved community. Councilmember Rousseau inquired how this project was budgeted originally. Public Works Director/City Engineer Swearingen explained this project was initially budgeted as a CDBG project that was to be fully grant funded. He further discussed the history of this project noting the City was awarded $189,000 in 2021. He commented on how inflation had impacted this project. City Administrator Perrault reported last year the Council determined the court surface could wait one more year in order to allow the Council to pursue additional grant funding. He indicated the Council could try to get additional grant funding in 2025. Councilmember Rousseau recalled the Council completed a pickleball court in the Floral Park neighborhood last year instead of completing Arden Manor hardcourt. She stated this did not feel like a good decision given this was an underserved community. She was hopeful the City could receive funding from the Met Council in order to move this project forward.