Bike Board Members,
The outlook for a state grant to support our Education recommendations looks really positive. I met again last Monday with Jeff Mikorski, Assistant City Manager. He was very forgiving and understanding that I didn't have more than a short list of cost items with just a few cost estimates and only a 10 line outline for a justification when I'd promised to have the meat of the application done by now. At our last meeting, Mr. Mikorski agreed to contact Harold Simmons, the WV Coordinator of the Transportation Enhancement Program (TEP) to find out who has applied in the past, who received them, who didn't and why they did or didn't get them. Jeff spoke with Mr. Simmons and learned that Beckley and one other city applied for the grant in the past (before the minimum request was $30K). Beckley won a $10K education grant because they had a very well defined program. On the other hand, the City that didn't get the grant had a half-baked proposal (my words) and couldn't answer questions about it when asked.
The best news is that Mr. Simmons said the state is looking for proposals that will diversify the TEP. One concern that Mr. Mikorski voiced in our last meeting was that the City might resist submitting an Education grant proposal if they thought it would compete with their proposal for more Streetscape funding. Mr. Mikorski raised this with Mr. Simmons. Simmons replied that the proposal evaluators wouldn't consider them to be competing at all because the Streetscape money is much more and, more importantly, it's category (infrastructure) is very different. In fact, Mr. Simmons encouraged Mr. Mikorski to submit the Effective Cycling Education proposal because the state is looking for more proposals of that type.
Mr. Mikorski also made the brilliant observation that the Bike-and-Chevron shared lane markings are also educational. I was concerned that the $30K minimum was too high for the Education scope that we recommended to the Traffic Commission in our February recommendations. The Bike-and-Chevron details that we delivered to the Traffic Commission in June total approximately $13K so we may be able to submit a well substantiated and justified proposal. The key is going to be able to estimate impact.
Mr. Mikorski agreed to meet with me again in a month, or earlier if we get something useful done. In the meantime, he volunteered to draft the parts of the proposal that he can without having the cycling specific content.
Hope you're all getting in good rides! I was writing this on my front porch and was alarmed when it got dark already at 8:24 pm:( See you Thursday next week!
Frank
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Bikeboard] Grant Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:00:16 -0400 From: Frank Gmeindl fgmeindl@verizon.net To: bikeboard@cheat.org CC: Jeff Mikorski jmikorski@cityofmorgantown.org, Jeff Mikorski jmikorski@comcast.net
Bike Board members,
Those of you who printed and posted flyers for this weekend's Road I course, please accept my gratitude. Nobody signed up. The next offering is September 8-9. Attached is the flyer updated for these dates. Would you please replace the flyers you posted with this one? Perhaps with a little more exposure time, the flyers will bring in a minimum of 4 participants.
Yesterday, I met with Jeff Mikorski, Assistant City Manager. He is quite supportive of pursuing a WV Transportation Enhancement grant to support our Education recommendations. To submit a grant on our behalf, Mr. Mikorski needs us to define what the money would be spent on, how much would be spent on each item, and the transportation impact. Our chances of getting the grant depend on how substantive and credible a case we can make. Who will work with me to do this?
Intent-to-propose applications are due 15-November. Grants are $30K minimum and must be spent in 12-15 months. The state provides 80% and the municipality or county must contribute 20%. The application must be approved by City Council. Proposed projects must fit into one or more of 12 categories. Category #1 is "provision of facilities for pedestrians or bicyclists". Category #2 is "provision of safety and educational activities for pedestrians and bicyclists". Proposals are due 15-Jan. Awards are announced 6-9 months later.
Mr. Mikorski has a good rapport with Harold Simmons the WV coordinator of transportation grants. He will talk with Simmons to find out who applied for category 1 and 2 grants in the past, who received them, who didn't and why they did or didn't get them. He'll feed guidance back to us.
Anytime the City spends over $10K on one project, they must request competitive bids. Mr. Mikorski emphasized that the state won't pay salaries but will pay consultants. We should recognize that the City will probably end up hiring consultants rather than funding Bike Board members. I will talk with Ron Eck about the best way to balance this out. Dr. Eck is Chairman of the Traffic Commission, a WVU Civil Engineering professor, and, I believe, a member of a consulting group.
In our February recommendations, we recommended that the City get a $10K grant to be spent over 24-months to purchase, develop and deliver training. We didn't define any more detail than that. If we flesh out our education details and they total to less than $30K, we could include infrastructure.
That we convince City Council and the State that they will realize substantial value for their investment is crucial.
My next meeting with Mr. Mikorski is 22-August. Let's have a substantive case to present!
I look forward to your reply.
Frank /Cyclists Fare Best when They Act and Are Treated as Drivers of Vehicles/
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