City Council’s finance committee gave a positive recommendation to have Larson Design Group provide engineering services for the East Fourth Street reconstruction project.

The contract is for $69,315 and provides design and engineering for a project estimated at $920,000, said Jon Sander, city engineer.

The design is for an area on East Fourth Street between Basin and Penn streets and is a continuation of the neighborhood improvement as part of the East Third Street Old City Gateway project.

The project includes streetscape upgrades such as sidewalk, lights and street reconstruction and paving, Sander said.

The city received a multi-modal grant in the amount of $645,000 from the Commonwealth Financing Agency, Sander said.

The grant is a 70/30 match. Lycoming County is covering $276,000 of the match, but the city must first provide that funding

upfront and later be reimbursed by the county, Sander said.

The design is timed with the construction of the Lycoming College music facility, which will be built on that block, he said.

Larson Design Group worked with Delta Development, a city consulting firm, on the project and has local connection to the continuation of the Gateway improvement. No state Department of Transportation fundings are involved in this block as proposed in the design plan, Sander said.

Miele clarified with Sander how the original design plan showed certain elements that she believed were inappropriate, mainly those providing closing down the street to permit catered events at DiSalvo’s Restaurant, which is closer to Penn Street.

“I would not encourage that,” Sander said. He added any original design was meant to show a conceptual drawing to get the project forwarded and would not be supported by the administration.

Miele said because of the city’s financial constraints, this project cannot go over-budget.