DOWAGIAC — The city of Dowagiac is planning to improve its wastewater collection system.

On Monday, the city council unanimously approved a resolution to set a public hearing on Feb. 10 to gather input for an application for a Community Development Block Grant.

According to the city of Dowagiac’s 2019 to 2029 Master Plan, the city operates a wastewater collection treatment system of about 33 miles of gravity sewer, 660 maintenance holes, three and a half miles of force main, 10 lift stations and six grinder stations. All of these components help lead wastewater from collection systems to the Dowagiac Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“We’ve been marching on a path for quite a while now on doing a major piece of work in our wastewater treatment plant collection system,” said City Manager Kevin Anderson. “We are going to be applying for USDA loans and potentially other grants to do this.”

Anderson estimated the amount of funding to be about $6 million. By applying for the CDBG grant, the city would be able to go even further into the Stormwater, Asset Management and Wastewater grant improvements.

The city plans to rework headworks of the plant to install a screener, according to the master plan.

“This grant would allow us to do an additional $2 million plus on projects,” Anderson said.

The CDBG would not replace any loans it has been working on but would add additional funds.

“There are about $10 million the state has that they are going to put out on projects that are statewide,” Anderson said. “It is a relatively short window to apply.”

While putting the paperwork together, a condition required the city to host a public hearing before submitting the application, which is due by Feb. 14. The city council will try to approve the grant application following the public hearing on Feb. 10.

Also on Monday:

• A resolution was unanimously passed to authorize a 2021 Dowagiac Dial-A-Ride Transit budget of $207,460, recommended by the DART local advisory committee.

• A resolution unanimously passed to ratify a three-year collective bargaining agreement between the city of Dowagiac and Local #876 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for services through Dec. 31.

• A resolution to authorize budget amendments for the 2019-2020 fiscal year budget was passed.

• Within the next two weeks, the city website will go live, Anderson said. Migration of data is currently taking place.

• A request for proposals for the property at 143 Front St. was handed to city council members on Monday.

“We’ve got that out to the hands of people who have shown interest in the real estate community and development community in and around the region,” Anderson said. “We have had five different folks go through the building at this point. We probably will get one more through it. We have a couple of people showing significant interest.”

Anderson said the proposals would come into the clerk’s office on Feb. 18.

“I think it’s another opportunity for downtown to able to get some property back into the hands of private folks who will be investing in that property,” he said.