EL CENTRO — The El Centro City Council Tuesday night approved the California Department of Transportation Clean California Grant to help beautify downtown El Centro.

The Council approved the design concepts presented by COAR Design Group.

Community Services Director Adriana Nava said it was a very competitive grant.

“We were one of 42 who were selected out of 232 applicants,” Nava said.

The total net direct cost is $2.4 million, while the construction cost is $3.38 million for the El Centro Gateway project at Eighth and Main streets.

The public safety measure for the downtown work plan mentioned that safety in the downtown core was a recurring theme during the outreach, so the city implemented some items to provide more safety.

Thirty installation cameras were installed throughout th

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