LANSING – Harold Boverhuis worked the longest and the hardest and he is entitled to feel good.

Monday, March 26, 2001

LANSING – Harold Boverhuis worked the longest and the hardest and he is entitled to feel good.

"We feel very good about Lansing Township receiving the grant," Boverhuis said. "It’s been a long time in coming."

Boverhuis, a Lansing Township Board member, is project chairman for the township’s effort to bring a sanitary sewer collection system to the residents.

Last week, the Minnesota Department of Trade and Economic Development announced Lansing Township has been awarded a $485,000 Small Cities Development Program grant. Still to come are grant and loan monies from the USDA’s Rural Development for the bulk of the estimated $2 million project.

But receiving the $485,000 grant should free up the remaining money needed for the project.

According to Boverhuis, the Lansing Township Board will attend a meeting tonight at Fridley, where the Small Cities Development Program’s grant will be explained.

It is possible, a bid letting could take place in July or August and construction of the sanitary sewer collection system sometime later this year.

The Small Cities Development Program is a veritable "court of last resort" for some small government entities in Minnesota, who find other funding avenues thwarted.

Administered by the business and community development division of DTED, the program offers financial assistance to communities over a wide range of needs.

Lansing Township residents have battled sanitary sewer and water problems for decades and the township’s needs met the criteria of the Small Cities Development Program.

Boverhuis refused to speculate how much money the township can expect to receive in the form of a grant and loan from Rural Development other than to say the "bulk of the money."