Cottonwood Bridge meeting set for Wednesday

The Hill County Commission will be holding a public meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Great Northern Fairgrounds Community Center about its ongoing efforts to fund repairs for Cottonwood Bridge.

Repairing Cottonwood Bridge, which lies northwest of Havre, has been a goal of the commission for some time, with the commissioners discussing the possibility of using American Rescue Plan Act funds to try to address the structure's ongoing deterioration for around a year now.

In a meeting last week with representatives from Great West Engineering and Bear Paw Development Corp. the commissioners discussed possible routes to take to fund the project, which has a price tag in the millions.

Most of the conversation revolved around the difficulties of applying for a grant from Montana Coal Endowment Program this year, which Craig Erickson of Great West said will be difficult.

Erickson said the Montana Department of Commerce needs to be assured of a realistic source for a match for the Montana Coal Endowment Program, as well as a reasonable budget for the project, and while there is a significant amount of federal money out there that could be used, the rules about how these various programs can be used, and the timelines for when funds from them are available are still unclear.

He said he doesn't want to be a pessimist, but these days Commerce isn't fond of tying up the endowment program's money for projects that aren't going to get started quickly and because the match necessary to get one of these grants would likely come from one of these federal programs, its unlikely that the endowment will be a viable course of funding this year.

"I'm not sure I have an answer for that right now, other than Hill County writes a check for whatever the gap is to complete the project, and I don't imagine that is going to happen," he said. "... Their tolerance for open-ended projects that go on for seven, eight, nine years, boy it's not there anymore."

Erickson said, despite his concerns, there is a significant amount of money out there that will eventually be available for this project through a number of different sources, many a result of the bi-partisan infrastructure bill that recently passed.

He said the county should focus on getting its preliminary engineering report for the project done, so they have it ready to go when they do get a chance to apply for funding, which, he said, will give them a leg up on their applications.

"You are going to get a return on that investment," he said.

Multiple people at the meeting said they think it's very likely the project is going to get funded one way or another, but Montana Coal Endowment Program funding this year seems like a long shot.

The group also discussed the possibility of getting funding through a mega grant via the Montana Department of Transportation.

Karl Yakawich of Great West said MDT is talking about applying for these mega grants, which begin at $100 million, and have been made available through the infrastructure bill, and while he doesn't have a lot of specifics about what the department can and will do, they are interested in these grants which may be able to provide funding to the Cottonwood Bridge.

After some discussion about how American Rescue Plan Act funds can be used and the possibility of coordinating with MDT on the mega grant, Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said the commission will need some assistance identifying what can and can't be used for grant matches.

Wednesday's public meeting on the project will be at 6 p.m. at the Great Northern Fairgrounds Community Building.