The City of Ironton announced a new grant on Thursday and agreed to continue to allow the county's CAO to manage more grants.

In the first action, getting to and from Ironton's riverfront may soon become much smoother.

On Thursday, city council members voted to allow Mayor John Elam to enter into an agreement with the state for a $75,000 grant to help fund the Center Street landing flood gate improvement project.

In addition, council authorized the mayor to rebid the entire project, estimated at $424,007 project on Thursday. The original bids were higher than the city had budgeted.

The ODOT grant was supposed to be one of the last remaining pieces of the puzzle that had to be put in place before construction could begin.

Elam said a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was set to expire in June that would have put the project in jeopardy. The mayor said, however, that he managed to get one final extension on the grant.

Bids packets should go out next week and completion of the project is set for November 30.

"(The project) will open opportunities for riverfront development and maybe even additional grants from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources," Elam said.

The project's entire cost will be funded by grant sources.

"I'd like to commend the mayor and his staff because this $75,000 is about to make this happen," said Councilman Jesse Roberts.

Council members voted unanimously Thursday night to enter into an agreement with the Ironton-Lawrence County CAO to administer the city's Community Development Block Grant programs.

Contractual fees for writing, preparing and submitting these grants were set in the one-year contract based on hourly rates not to exceed $35,000. Elam said the amount would be less if a particular grant's administrative cost could be included in the overall grant total.

City council meeting will be televised thanks to a new partnership between the City of Ironton and the Ohio University Southern Electronic Media Department.

Thursday night's meeting was aired on Friday night and will be aired again at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Elam said. The meeting will be aired on Adelphia Cable's public access channel.