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Hill County tables $25 million BUILD Grant application

Hill County Commissioners voted unanimously at their weekly business meeting Thursday to table the application for the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development Grant with plans to take it up again for next year.

“It seems like we are not quite ready to really know where we are at with it,” Commissioner Diane McLean said.

The BUILD grant, formerly known as Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant is a $1.5 billion federal Department of Transportation program for national infrastructure investments in rural roads.The federal Department of Transportation awards up to $150 million dollars to states each year. The grant is available for state, county, city and tribal governments, and can award anywhere from $5 to $25 million annually to those governments. The BUILD grant also has a separate $15 million grant available for planning, preparation or design of projects, which would include environmental analysis, feasibility studies and other preconstruction activities for surface transportation projects.

Commissioner Mark Peterson had said he wanted the county to apply for a $25 million grant, and hoped the Havre city government would also apply for a grant.

The county held three public meeting, two at the Great Northern Fairgrounds Community Center and one in Hingham. The two meeting in Havre had little community attendance, but Peterson said that the meeting in Hingham went well, with more than 40 people attending and giving input on the roads they see as a priority.

Commissioner Mike Wendland said that the part of the project that was being voted on is more to do with planning for the project than the actual project itself. He added that the commissioners met with a representative from Great West Engineering Monday where they discussed putting in an application for a planning grant before submitting for the full $25 million construction grant.

Peterson said that Great West agreed to put together a planning grant for $30,000, but he has not yet a contract for the work. Once the payment was made, Great West would have had two months to put together documentation to apply for planning grant.

The planning grant application would not specify a dollar amount requested. He added that the planning grant could be from a quarter million dollars in funding or a million dollars in funding, dependent on how the numbers come together at the end.

Then the application would have been submitted to U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao for her consideration to award the planning grant, he said. He added that if the application was submitted until in July the county would be notified sometime in November. Peterson said that the representative from Great West said the full grant application could take up to a year and a half to complete with sufficient details.

McLean said she spoke with Great West Thursday morning and was told that the price of the grant application could be anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000 at cost to the county, with the application for the full grant an additional cost. She added that Great West told her that the full grant, or construction grant, would be at a reduced cost compared with the price of the planning grant.

“I guess I’m feeling like we aren’t clear enough in our budget with where this is going to come from,” she said. “Now, it’s going to affect the other obligations that we have.”

McLean proposed that the county looks at applying for the grant next year, saying two months is not enough time to get the application compete. She added that $30,000 is a large cost to the county and it would have no guarantee the grant will be awarded.

She said if the commissioners waited until next year to submit the planning grant the county will know ahead of time of what is required in the grant and can include the cost into the budget.

“It has to a very valiant effort if you are going to spend that money up front to try to get this done and without a plan in place, where this money is going to come from,” she said. “It’s really tough.”

McLean said that next year would be a better time to apply for the grant.

“I just feel, let’s look at doing this next year,” she said. “Let’s try to make this adjustment so we could do this next year.”

“We are scrambling right now,” she added. “…We better have a better handle on that budget and we’ve got to allow them time enough to put together something that’s adequate.”

Peterson said that if the application was submitted next year the construction grant would not be available until 2022 or 2023.

The commissioners also tabled approving a contract with the Hill County Driving Under the Influence Task Force Plan for 2019-20.

Wendland said that the Havre Police Department had dropped off the plan late last week so they could review the Havre Police Department’s ongoing DUI task force plan.

He added that the task force plan did not have to be approved at Thursday’s meeting and the commission could vote on the plan at a future meeting.

The vision statement of the task force plan said that the Havre Hill County DUI Task Force represents a diverse cross section of the community, including, citizens, government officials, law enforcement, businesses, health professionals, prevention professionals, parents and educators appointed by the Hill County Commissioners.

The document said that in 2018 Hill County had 98 DUI cases, the highest since 2015, and as of April 28 Hill County had 26 cases.

It added that Hill County continues to be charged with illegal alcohol sales, repeated DUI offenders, refusals to submit to breath testing for minors in possession and DUIs. In 2018 Havre Police Department issued 179 citations for MIPs.

The document also specifies strategies the task force utilizes to help prevent DUIs, such as the 24/7 Sobriety Program, sharing information through media on the dangers of driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol and a social media page for the task force.

 

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