Brownstown submitting application for paving matching grant

0

BROWNSTOWN

The Brownstown Town Council received some good news while applying for a grant to pave streets.

The town will only have to provide a 25 percent match and could get as much as $400,000 worth of work.

This is the first time for the town to apply for funding from the Next Level Roads: Community Crossings Initiative.

“You guys get a real nice break,” Bernie Hauersperger of FPBH Inc. told the council during a recent meeting. “The city of Seymour has to pay a higher match. I think they are 50-50, so I think this is a great deal for you guys, and I want to make sure you guys take advantage of it.”

Community Crossings was created by the Indiana General Assembly in 2016. Funds for the program are awarded from the state’s local road and bridge matching grant fund.

To qualify for funding, local governments must provide local matching funds — 50 percent for larger communities or 25 percent for smaller communities — from a funding source approved for road and bridge construction. They also must submit an Indiana Department of Transportation-approved asset management plan for maintaining existing roads and bridges.

State law requires 50 percent of the available matching funds be awarded to communities within counties with a population of 50,000 or fewer. Brownstown has around 3,000 residents.

The grant application is due Feb. 1. FPBH is assisting the town as it submits the application and other required paperwork. That fee is $3,500.

Brownstown Clerk-Treasurer David Willey is putting together a list of streets in the most critical need of work and a cost estimate for each.

Hauersperger said the number of streets paved will depend on how much funding the town receives if it is awarded a grant. He encouraged the town to list as many streets as possible on the application.

“If they give you the full amount, then you have a line there that you can do them all, but if they give you partial amount, then you can at least cut off where they give you,” he said. “Unfortunately, if you get the full amount and it comes in at less than what you budgeted, that’s obviously good, but the rest of that money, you don’t get. It just goes back into (the state’s) pot.”

If Brownstown receives funding, FPBH will help the town seek quotes from contractors and plan out the work.

This year, INDOT is making it more convenient for communities to pursue Community Crossings grants by offering two calls for projects.

INDOT is accepting project applications this month and in July with a given community being eligible to apply for up to $1 million once during the call of their choice.

State lawmakers identified long-term funding for Community Crossings as part of House Enrolled Act 1002, passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb in April 2017.

Crothersville recently received funding for the second year in a row. After completing 14 paving projects with $423,406.10 in Community Crossings funding in 2018, the southeastern Jackson County town received $217,480.80 for 14 projects this year.

Crothersville was among 283 Indiana cities, towns and counties receiving a combined $100 million in state matching funds for local road projects. There were 444 communities that applied for funds, making the call for projects highly competitive.

Now in its third year, Community Crossings has awarded nearly $400 million in state matching funds to local governments for construction projects.

No posts to display