Meeting next week to help direct City Square’s future

    With a survey currently underway, another step toward possible development of Imperial’s City Square will happen on Tuesday.
    Personnel with Miller & Associates, the city’s engineer on the planning effort, will conduct the meeting at the Lied Imperial Public Library starting at 6:30 p.m.
    Jennie Kozal, a community planner, and Ashley Weesner, a certified grant administrator, both with Miller & Associates, will conduct Tuesday’s community input meeting.
    Imperial received a $14,000 planning grant from the state’s Civic and Community Center Financing Fund for this “study” portion of the process.
    The planning grant required a 50% local match. This city’s $14,000 came from Imperial’s community development sales tax fund.
    Kozal said they will open Tuesday’s meeting with information on the CCCFF grant program and the City Square feasibility study they are directing.
    Secondly, they want to hear from residents on how they see Imperial now and how development of City Square—the full block between 7th and 8th Streets between Broadway and Court—would fit into the community vision.
    Tyler Pribbeno, Imperial Community Development Director, said anyone interested in the City Square development, or who’d like to see specific events there, should attend Tuesday’s meeting.
    He said comments received Tuesday, along with the ongoing survey and from another meeting this fall, will help shape City Square’s potential future.
    After Tuesday’s meeting, Kozal and Weesner will work with their in-house engineers to put together preliminary drawings to be shown at a second community meeting in September or October.
    December would be the goal for final drawings to be completed. After possible tweaking, they would be submitted in early 2022 to the city council with engineer estimates on construction costs.
    Council members will decide whether the city would proceed with application for a CCCFF construction grant, which, if received, would fund 50% of the actual City Square development work.
Planning grants only
    Due to COVID, the NE Department of Economic Development awarded only CCCFF planning grants in 2021 like the city received, Kozal said.
    However, “From everything we have seen, NDED is hopeful of funding construction grants in the next funding cycle (2022),” she said.
    Money accumulates in the CCCFF from fees charged at some of the state’s largest event centers in Omaha, Lincoln and Ralston, including the CHI Health Center in Omaha and Lincoln’s Pinnacle Bank Arena.
    In the past, Imperial could apply for as much as a $375,000 construction grant from the CCCFF. Grant amounts are based on the community’s population.
    However, due to COVID-19, there were fewer events at the state’s large event centers the past year, meaning fewer dollars in that fund.
    Development ideas for City Square started when Jason Tuller was Imperial’s Community Development Director.
    There was a grant application made for the actual project then, but the city was denied. State officials cited the lack of community input and prior planning.
    Pribbeno believes having the community meetings and survey this time around will help get the grant for the actual work.
Survey open until July 23
    A survey is now available on which people can comment about the City Square development.
    Hard copy surveys can be picked up at the city office, or are available online at the city’s website: imperial-ne.com.
    Survey responses will be received through July 23.