Niles has received another sizable grant that will go toward paying for the cost of removing the Pucker Street Dam.

On Monday, the Niles City Council voted unanimously to accept the $90,750 dam management grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Jeff Dunlap, utilities manager, said with this award the city has received a total of $1,240,750 in committed grant money.

The project is expected to cost around $3.4 million, although Dunlap said that figure is subject to change.

“Our budget is somewhat dynamic, depending on circumstances that we encounter in the field,” he said.

The city has owned the hydroelectric dam since 1894, but the dam hasn’t produced electricity in many years due to ongoing maintenance issues that became too expensive to fix. The city council voted to remove the dam in 2013, and was originally estimated to cost $1.8 million.

Cost estimates skyrocketed after officials discovered unexpected complications, including that the amount of sediment built up behind the dam was beyond what was originally anticipated.

City officials also learned that additional work would have to be done to ensure that nearby Pucker Street Bridge is not damage during the dam’s removal.

To compensate for the increased cost, the city placed a surcharge on electric sales this spring.

Electric reserves have also been used to fund the engineering portion of the project.

The city also plans to apply for additional grant money.

Dunlap said they hope to begin work in late spring or early summer of next year.

“We have no set timeline for completion yet as we are still working on final designs, and impacted utility issues,” he said.

Marcy Colclough, senior planner with the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, said an environment impact statement is also needed before work can begin. The statement would describe the positive and negative environmental effects of the proposed project, among other things she said.