By BARBARA GREEN
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The Bowie City Council gave final approval to the 2022-23 budget and passed the first reading of the ordinance setting the 2022 tax rate.
City officials also were updated on projected costs to repair the Nelson Street flooding damage.
In his monthly report, City Manager Bert Cunningham said the flooding in August made the already rusted-out culverts under Nelson Street at Kiwanis Park “hazardous at best and dangerous at worse.”
While a portion of the streets near those culverts collapsed, it also raised concerns the street weakened above those culverts could collapse under a heavy load. The dropbox at the intersection of Nelson and Mill also is collapsing.
“The culverts under Nelson Street need to be replaced with concrete culverts and the drop box culverts need to be replaced before we can let traffic continue to use the street,” explained the CM.
Hayter Engineering has given a plan design to two construction companies to get an estimate of the costs which the firm is estimating in the $2 million vicinity.
“I have asked Hayter to go ahead and design the project and as soon as we have a design, we will bid the project,” said Cunningham. “We currently have the funds to do at least the Nelson and Mill Street portion of the project. As you are probably aware we are required to have at least a 30% reserve of funds and we do not want to go under that amount. Obviously, before we do anything other than the engineering of the project, I will come to the council for permission to use the funds.”

Read the full story from this week’s city council meeting in the weekend Bowie News.