Oct. 28--WATERLOO -- The city expects to use local option sales tax revenue to help construct a full intersection at La Porte Road and Ridgeway Avenue.

Waterloo City Council members voted unanimously Monday to approve an agreement with the Iowa Department of Transportation for a $260,000 grant to help pay for the project, which is necessary to relocate Fire Station No. 8.

Councilman Harold Getty initially questioned why the city's $65,000 match would come from the 1 percent option tax revenue, because costs for moving the station were supposed to be paid by the investors buying the existing firehouse on the corner of San Marnan Drive and La Porte Road.

"I thought we had the understanding that this wasn't going to cost us anything," Getty said.

But Mayor Tim Hurley said the intersection was "not an explicit part of the agreement we have to build the new fire station."

Earlier this year council members approved a pact with First Equity Acquisitions of Rolling Meadows, Ill., which is buying the existing Station No. 8 for $2.1 million with plans to replace it with a new CVS Pharmacy. The purchase price was designed to cover the city's entire cost of building the new station at Ridgeway and La Porte roads.

Cardinal Construction of Waterloo is under contract to build the new fire station.

Community Planning and Development Director Noel Anderson said the city has seen a need for a full intersection at La Porte and Ridgeway. Currently, it is just a one-way slip ramp for southbound La Porte Road traffic to veer onto Ridgeway.

"It's going to have some far-reaching (impact) for economic development in that area," Anderson said. "It's been moved forward because of the fire station going in there."

In other business, council members voted 4-3 to approve the second reading of an ordinance vacating a portion of River Road next to the Manatt's Inc. cement mixing plant. The city is relocating River Road as part of the Commercial Street extension project, and Manatt's is asking for a part of the former street so it can maintain access to the plant.

The final reading of the ordinance is slated for next week.

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