I don't know if I ever found the time to ever thank all of you that submitted support letters and made emails the last time the KC region had a federal funding grant competition through the Mid-America Regional Council. Because of some key items:
Platte County's 3/8th cent road and bridge sales tax
Platte County's 1/2 cent parks and stormwater tax
Riverside and KCMO's public improvements sales tax
Contributions from the Kinsley Developer along Englewood and the KCI Corridor TIF
By bundling a lot of these funds and forming partnerships between governmental agencies, in 2014, roughly $16M of an available $55M of federal surface transportation funds and roughly $3M of an available $8M of federal transportation alternative funds are going to projects in Platte County. All the different governments in the metro area submitted grant applications totaling over $250M so walking out with a third of the money was amazing.
Here are some maps of all the successful projects from 2014. The cool thing about these projects is that none of them are unnecessary four lane widening of streets but rather rebuilding the streets to add curbs, sidewalks, street lights, etc rather than spending a ton of money on asphalt and tearing up folks front or back yards.
I did post something about the trail projects in more detail here.
Projects like replacing and realigning the Old Tiffany Springs Road bridge over I-29 (the Chuck E CheeseTM bridge).
The I-29 and 64th Street interchange.
NW 72nd Street from I-29 east over to Overland Drive.
Englewood Road west of US 169.
Lastly, I don't have a picture for it because the project footprint is still being decided, but improvements to Waukomis Drive from Englewood north to the culvert at the north end of Frank Vaydik (Line Creek) Park. What is cool about this project is it's a free one. How is it a free one? All of these federal projects require a local investment or match. The federal highway bill doesn't give out 100% funding. It requires local governments to have some skin in the game.
Platte County planned on funding the improvements to NW 72nd Street out of the 3/8th cent county road tax but decided to partner with KCMO, Platte Woods, and Lake Waukomis to apply for federal funds for that project. They were successful and received a $2.5M federal grant which freed up $2.5M of county tax which could be used for something else. Anticipating that, Platte County also applied for and received a $5M federal grant for the Waukomis improvements. They plan on using the $2.5M freed up from NW 72nd Street to match that $5M. It's like buying one road and getting one free. Roughly $3.5M of County 3/8th cent sales tax has brought in $7.5M of federal funds that could have gone somewhere else. I'd call that a pretty efficient use of County tax dollars.
The last grant round was incredibly cutthroat and political. I can't say enough thanks to Greg Sager who's the Platte County Public Works Director and both Commissioners Beverlee Roper and Duane Soper were heavily involved during multiple meetings and working with KCMO to secure funds for these improvements along with Mayor John Smedley of Platte Woods. Without these folks exhibiting leadership at the County level, I don't know if all of this would be happening. It pays to have people in elected positions who understand how the game is played to make sure tax dollars stay local.
It's been two years already and another grant round is upon us. If any of you readers would like to send a letter of support in for improving Green Hills Road south of Barry or improving North Woodland from 96th to Shoal Creek Parkway, send me an email and I will get you the details.
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