COAL GROVE - It has been a long time coming, but the Ice Creek Boat Ramp project could go to bid in about a month.

Doug Cade, section manager for the engineering/architectural firm CT Consultants' Huntington, W.Va., office, updated Coal Grove Village Council Thursday on the project.

A study for endangered mussel beds did not find any potential problems and a storm water permit has been received, he said.

CT Consultants, through the Ironton-Lawrence County CAO, submitted the plans to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for the agency's final comments.

After returned, the designs will be submitted to the Army Corp of Engineers and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and could go to bid within a month, he said.

The boat ramp will be built near where Ice Creek connects with the Ohio River in Coal Grove. The project could be completed three months after it begins.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Watercraft has already approved a $321,000 grant that required no matching funds for Phase 1 of constructing the two-lane boat ramp with a 30 space parking area.

Phase 2, with a projected cost of $330,000, would include paving the parking lot, improving the entrance and adding a pump-out station. Cade has said funding for this phase is still pending.

Also, Cade said he has filed the village's application for $229,000 in Appalachian Regional Commission grants for wastewater treatment plant improvements that include sludge-drying beds, chemical storage tanks and pump stations.

He said he was told that the project was rated second priority in the county. Although only one project is normally funded, some changes in the system may allow the village to get the project funded.

The village should know by late August if the application is going to be approved. If it is, the village will have to provide 20 percent matching funds, but could then apply to the Ohio Public Works Commission for these funds, Cade said.

Council also heard reports from three village residents who live on Township Road 268 stating that their water bills were inaccurate and fluctuated significantly from month to month. Roush said that council would investigate the matter.