By Carolyn Barbre
Success breeds success. Lindsay has learned that being prepared and poised to meet all the conditions required for grant funding tends to put the city at a big advantage over the competition.
It turns out that the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) has Transportation Enhancement (TE) funds of $2.3 million to disperse on a competitive basis through an application locally administer through the Tulare County Transportation Planning Agency.
Matching funds of 11.47 percent or $300,520 are required which the city would pay through the Lindsay Redevelopment Agency Funds.
The city just happens to have a transportation enhancement project on the boards that is estimated to cost $2.6 million. This would include curb, gutter, oversize and enhanced sidewalks, lighted pedestrian corridors, street lighting, street and pedestrian way landscaping and irrigation and up to four new murals in the downtown area.
"This is a wonderful opportunity to receive substantial funds," said City Manager Scot Townsend at the Lindsay Redevelopment Agency meeting on Tuesday, May 11 at city hall. Townsend said they were intending to make further improvements along Hermosa Street as well as down Elmwood Avenue and back on Honolulu Street with gas tax monies. So the plans are already in progress and the necessary environmental studies have been done. He said they will submit the proposal May 21 and should have a response in June.
TCAG staff does a competitive analysis. "We are essentially requesting all the money they have, but a lot of cities are not ready. I think there will be two or three applications at most," Townsend said. And to be on the safe side, they have alternate plan B, asking $1.7 million and plan C, asking $1.2 million. Naturally the matching funds would be less on the smaller amounts.
Resolution LRA 04-04, a resolution of the City of Lindsay Redevelopment Agency approving a match contribution toward the city's transportation Enhancements funding program passed.
This was followed by passage of Resolution 04-25 in the Lindsay City Council meeting immediately following the LRA meeting.
The resolution said "The proposed project improvements would represent an extraordinary improvement beyond normal construction, by incorporating oversized and enhanced sidewalks with themed coloration, texture and patterning, with other aesthetic enhancements such as landscaping and public art (murals) adjacent to pedestrian areas."
The city has a track record of designing and delivering successful pedestrian projects on time and on budget aimed toward creating a safe, beautiful and integrally connected pedestrian environment throughout Lindsay.
