By AMANDA LILLIE and TRISHA MARCZAK

The Department of Natural Resources has awarded the City of Austin with a $3 million grant for flood mitigation.

The grant, which was approved by City Council Monday evening, requires a 50 percent match from the city. The city will provide those funds through the local option sales tax, which was implemented for the purpose of funding flood mitigation projects.

Acceptance of the grant was approved unanimously, though council member John Martin said he did not feel there was enough attention given to the east side of Austin.

Some of the $3 million grant will be used towards phases 2, 9 and 12 of the North Main project. The purpose of the North Main project is for structural protection of property and the cost of all three phases totals nearly $4 million.

One million dollars of that will be paid with grant funding. Existing state funding will pay for $875,000 of the cost, and local option sales tax funds will pick up the remaining balance.