The City of Kalona is seeking a grant of $900,000 for a water quality initiative through the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. 

The topic was discussed at the most recent meeting of the Kalona City Council. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig announced in late September that the state would be accepting pre-applications for cost-share grants to support water quality projects as part of the state’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy.

The pre-application submitted by the City of Kalona was reviewed early last week. The final determination on whether the city can move forward with the full application will be made by December 19.

Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh explained what the city would do with the funding, if awarded, “The purpose of the funds, or how we would utilize them, is for water quality, and flood mitigation. And we would look to do that through wetlands, creation of wetlands, and some detention areas on some city-owned land in the northeast, kind of the north-central side of the community along Highway 1.”

Schlabaugh says the belief is that the city would need about 11.4 acres of mitigation efforts. The city would then create natural park space around it. Kalona would also work with the developer to create additional housing opportunities. Schlabaugh says that could be single-family homes, or two-family homes, or multi-family dwellings along the Highway 1 corridor. Furthermore, Schlabaugh says this plan would help give inventory to local builders.