BRADEN LAMMERS
Planning for federally funded construction projects in Southern Indiana is being switched around.
A plan to resurface Eighth Street in Jeffersonville has been removed from the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency’s, or KIPDA, list of projects being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“[Jeffersonville] was unsure as to whether they would be able to meet the deadlines, so the Indiana project sponsors agreed that that project needed to come off of our list and a different project needed to be put in its place,” said David Burton, transportation planner for KIPDA, at its Transportation Policy Committee meeting Thursday.
The project replacing the repaving of Eighth Street is a plan to put up warning signals and striping at Highland Hills Middle School, Galena Elementary School and Floyd Central High School in Floyd County.
The money slated for both projects is the exact same amount — nearly $160,000 in federal money — so the region will not be losing out on any funding.
Jeffersonville was not able to complete payment funding because of additional planning requirements that needed to be met in order to receive the federal stipend.
The city would have had to consider the intersections, require all walkways to be handicapped accessible and do a survey to determine whether or not there were historic limestone curbs at any of the construction locations, said Jim Urban, director of planning and development for Jeffersonville.
The city has not identified another source of funding to resurface the street, but it needs to be done, Urban said.
The swapping of the projects was in response to a deadline established by KIPDA of Sept. 1 for all plans being received for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. The deadline is to establish whether or not the projects will be completed by a March 2010 timeline.
“If we do not obligate the funds by March 2010, those funds go back to Washington [D.C.] and our area loses out on the opportunity to spend that money,” Burton said.
The timeline is so tight because the federal funding offered is part of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. If the region is successful in allocating all of the money by the deadline, it will be eligible to receive extra funding that was not designated timely enough from other states.
“That project should have no problem meeting that deadline,” Burton said of the Floyd County plan.
KIPDA will be holding an amendment open house for all projects planned to receive funding from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Jeffersonville City Hall.
