(ABC 6 News) – In April 2018, the city of Austin received $1,125,000 from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for flood mitigation.

Tonight, the city council approved allocating an additional $4 million towards the project.

This will also extend their deadline to use the state’s grant money.

The current grant contract agreement was set to expire at the end of the 2023, but now the new agreement will expire at the end of 2027.

According to city officials, Austin will pair this grant with the local options sales tax. This will allow the city to finalize the engineering and design work for the project.

“We’ll be able to construct a two-phase project in 2025 and 2027 to protect the infrastructure down at our wastewater treatment plant,” city engineer Steven Lang said.

The wastewater treatment plant is essential for anyone who uses water on a daily basis. The city wants to make sure the facility doesn’t get flooded in the future.

It’s another step towards seeing what they envisioned many years ago come to life.

“This is one of the last projects to be done, so we’re nearing completion of all of those projects that we’ve identified nearly 20 years ago,” Lang said.