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 --------
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