MARSHALL — The city of Marshall will be applying for state grant funds in hopes of covering the rising costs of a planned stormwater project in the neighborhood around Legion Field Road.

On Tuesday, members of the Marshall City Council gave their approval for city staff to apply for a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency Stormwater Resiliency Grant. Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson said the grant program would be “a good fit” for drainage improvements the city has studied in the Legion Field area.

“Most of the MPCA grants are for (water) treatment. This is for flooding,” Anderson said. The MPCA was seeking to distribute a total of $35 million in funding for projects that will help Minnesota communities prepare their stormwater infrastructure for the effects of climate change, he said.

The next phase of stormwater improvements near Legion Field is in the city’s capital improvement plan for 2025, Anderson said. That phase includes the cleaning and grading of a BNSF Railroad ditch east of Legion Field Road, building a new pipe crossing under the railway, and installing a 48-inch pipe to a new stormwater pond to be built on city-owned land north of the Nexus Apartments.

“This project solves regional flooding concerns in this entire area, probably a 50-acre watershed or so,” Anderson said.

The main catch was the cost. Anderson said the city had $676,000 identified for the project. However, since then “project costs have kind of gone bananas,” he said. “We’re now looking at closer to $1.4 million.”

Anderson said the MPCA grant funding would help cover the gap between city funds and the anticipated project cost.