The environmental review for Gatherings on the Prairie’s community development block grant has been approved.

Susan Jagerson, Junction City EDC Specialist, explained that in order to receive the grant the environmental review had to be approved,”That consists of contacting any of the agencies that might have a stake in getting the building renovated.”

That information was submitted to the Kansas Department of Commerce, “We were able to get approval that we had passed the environmental review process with no major comments from any of the agencies in getting the project done.”

The next step is soliciting bids from architectural and engineering firms. Those bids were due Monday by five p.m. according to Jagerson.

“We’re going to go ahead and look at the bids, see what we’ve got and then make a recommendation.”

Jagerson explained that the bids are for qualifications and not actual bids for the job,”We’re looking at the qualifications of the firms that have submitted proposals to be able to do the job, to complete the job and to have history with the CDBG project.”

Gatherings on the Prairie purchased the building adjacent to them at 617 N Washington from the City and will use the $250,000 grant along with $200,000 of their own money to renovate and expand into that building.