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Lou Fleury, a project engineer for Flint-based Rowe Incorporated, announced recently that the village has received a pair of grants that will cover 100 percent of the construction cost of the street improvement project.

"It amounts to about 4,500 feet of improvements that include curb and gutter, storm drainage, a new guard rail near the Volkmer Road intersection and the paving itself," Fleury said.

Most of the funding ($436,480) came from the federal 2008 Rural Task Force program while the remaining 20 percent ($109,120) was secured through a Michigan Jobs Today grant.

"We're very pleased," remarked Village president Douglas Corwin.

The village's only financial obligation, according to village administrator Marlene Schultz, is the cost of design engineering and project inspection. She pegs those somewhere in the neighborhood of $80,000.

The project is similar to one the village completed several years ago on S. Front Street from the downtown light to the village limits, according to Fleury. However, in that instance the village was required to come up with the 20 percent match.

"It is pretty rare to get 100 percent of a project like this grant funded, so we are pretty excited," said Fleury.

Construction of the project will begin in 2008 and be completed the same year.