The city of Arnold has hired a firm to help it acquire access to land so a Pomme Road improvement project may begin.
City Council members voted 6-0 on July 11 to pay up to $125,850 to O.R. Colan Associates of St. Charles to provide right-of-way acquisition services for the project. Ward 2 Councilman Brian McArthur and Ward 4 Councilman Butch Cooley were absent from the meeting.
Public Works Director Judy Wagner said the project will impact 35 parcels of land along Pomme Road, and the city needs agreements for easements or temporary easements for some of the parcels. The city also will need to acquire some land before the project may start.
“It is a lot more than I can handle,” Wagner said. “(O.G. Colan) does a lot of work for MoDOT (Missouri Department of Transportation) in negotiating the purchase or acquisition of easements or new right-of-ways.”
Arnold received a Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) of up to $1,650,000 from the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission in 2023 to reconstruct a little more than half a mile of Pomme Road and add sidewalks between Lonedell Road and Rockview Lane in the city’s northeastern area.
Wagner said the project will cost an estimated $3,150,000, and Arnold will have to pay about $1.5 million of that cost.
She said the section of Pomme Road to be improved really needs it, adding that “you rock ‘n’ roll” when you drive it.
She said the planned work will completely transform the stretch of road.
“It will be 100 percent better,” she said. “It will be so much more friendly as far as walking and driving.”
According to the council documents, Arnold expects to hire a construction company for the project in either November 2025 or December 2025.
Work on the road is not expected to start until March 2026, and the project is projected to be completed in October 2026, council documents said.
“That is part of project management,” Wagner said of acquiring the right-of-way parcels. “By staying on them every day, it helps keep the process moving along. When you receive $1.5 million grant money from the federal government, these are things that keep projects viable.”
Wagner said the city received approval to begin acquiring the necessary parcels near the start of July.
“That is one of the reasons I want to get these guys on board so we can acquire the easements and right-of-ways,” she said. “Once we get the documents in the property owners’ hands, it could take three to nine months, depending on the situation, to acquire the land.”
Wagner said the agreement with O.G. Colan is similar to when the city hired an outside firm to handle right-of-way acquisitions for the Lonedell Road improvement project that is slated to start this year.
She said 27 parcels will be impacted by that Lonedell Road project, and she was able to acquire 10 of those parcels herself. However, the city is using an outside firm to acquire the other 17.
As of July 9, the company had acquired 12 for the city but still needed to acquire five parcels on Lonedell Road, Wagner said.
“I don’t have the time to do this myself,” Wagner said of the right-of-way acquisitions along Pomme Road. “That is why we are hiring O.G. Colan to do it. We hope to have it done in six to 10 months.”
Wagner said after the right-of-ways are acquired, the next step would be to work with the utility companies to move utilities in the area, and then the city would start the process of hiring a construction company.
Wagner said the project is eligible for funding through the city’s share of Jefferson County’s 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge projects.
That tax was first approved in April 1986 and was extended in November 1998 and August 2014. The county collects the money and reimburses the 15 municipalities for projects each month, and the money rolls over each year.
The county keeps the bulk of the money from the tax to use throughout unincorporated Jefferson County and then distributes the rest to cities based on population and road miles in those cities.