A newly acquired grant will enable Scott City to build a much larger public works and recycling center than originally proposed.

The grant came through the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission.

The city was looking to construct a 30-by-30-foot building at a cost of approximately $20,000. Now, due to the grant, it will probably have a 30-by-64-foot structure at a cost to the city of approximately $25,000.

According to the budget summary report, the city would be responsible for salaries of the laborers, clerks, public works director, city administrator, operators and drivers, plus some machinery costs. The budget report estimates those expenses at $24,901.76.

The total cost for the project is estimated at $64,055.76, with the grant paying for 61 percent of that amount.

The city received one bid for the project at Monday's meeting. BBL Buildings of Perryville bid the project out for $24,755 -- a bid that Public Works Director Harold Uelsmann said was surprisingly low.

"That's a real good bid," he said. "I was looking at around the $30,000 range."

The city council tabled the bid until the public works committee could review it at its Thursday meeting. The council will vote on it at its next meeting.

The building will allow the public works director to have his own office, provide storage space for public works' vehicles and equipment, plus provide room for workmen to repair and service the equipment.

"This is heaven-sent," Uelsmann said. "We've needed this for so long."

In other city business:

* Orley and Betty Jackson, representing the Urban Water Users group, are threatening a law suit if the city council pursues a water rate increase on rural water users.

"I can guarantee this will go to court," Orley Jackson said after Mayor Jerry Cummins said he did not intend to change the rate increase. "And it'll be 100 people filing lawsuits."

The Urban Water Users group is claiming the city broke its contract with 100 rural water users when it raised its rural rates by 175 percent in 1990. The Urban Water Users said their contracts, all of which were signed in 1988 and 1989, state the city cannot raise the rural water rates unless the city water rates also increase. City water users have not had an increase in their rates since the contracts were signed.

The city is asserting that the rural water users have all signed new contracts agreeing to the rate increase, but all 100 members of the Urban Water Users have claimed they cannot find these new contracts and that the city cannot produce the originals.

The issue was passed on to city attorney Francis Siebert, who will investigate to see if a 60-day advance notice was sent out in 1990 alerting residents to the rate increase.

A notice is required by the 1988 contracts. If there is no record of a notice being sent out, and the city cannot find proof that these residents signed a new contract, "The city could be responsible for reparations," Siebert said.