After some very heated discussion on Monday night, the Red Bud City Council approved of moving forward with applying for a grant for a splash pad.
With the meeting relocated to the fire department, and also available for people to attend remotely on Zoom, most of the splash pad discussion happened during the evening’s committee meetings, but the final vote on the matter took place at the council’s special meeting that followed.
In the Recreational Committee meeting, Alderman Kyle Donjon again brought up the topic of having HMG Engineers Inc. apply for the City of Red Bud for a, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Open Space Land Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant to build a splash pad. HMG has offered to apply for the grant for the city at no charge.
HMG has helped several other communities in applying for and receiving similar grants, notably the City of Waterloo which was awarded a $400,000 OSLAD grant in January for their splash pad.
He added that Sarah Tebbe, a project manager at HMG Engineers Inc., was available on Zoom to answer any questions that the council may have.
Alderman Bill Hanebutt said that he would prefer to have City Code Administrator Jeff Mueller do the grant application instead, adding that if the city got the grant, then they could go to HMG for quotes. “If Jeff can do it, we’re not tying ourselves to anyone.”
For more from the City Council, please see this week’s print edition.