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One Voice But Two Grant Applications

Town of Normal

The Town of Normal is hiring two consultants to help secure federal TIGER funding for a probable underpass beneath the tracks near Uptown Station. During GLT's Sound Ideas, Mayor Chris Koos told Mike McCurdy the Town's eventual application is not in competition with a TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant application from the City of Bloomington to fund the Hamilton Road extension project.

Koos and nearly 40 other community representatives from government, education and business spent a large part of last week in Washington D.C as part of the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council's One Voice trip, presenting a united community front in asking for federal funding for projects such as the Hamilton Road project.

"We went out a couple of days early on a fact finding mission to get information about how our project looked," said Koos. "As One Voice started on Tuesday evening there was never a mention of our project. We stood in support of the Bloomington project and still do, as part of the One Voice initiative."

In May of 2015, Bloomington Aldermen supported a $15 million TIGER grant application from McLean County and Connect Transit instead of the Hamilton Road project. The county's application would have helped fund a jail expansion and a bus transfer station in Downtown Bloomington.

"It has been my understanding if two TIGER grants come from one community it hurts the chances of both," said Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner. "Certainly that was the case last summer when we withdrew our application for Hamilton Road."

Renner said the city received two calls from Senator Durbin's office asking Bloomington to pull its Hamilton Road project and wait for the next TIGER grant cycle.

"These were two projects in the City of Bloomington. Even though the county was making the ask, these were both in the city of Bloomington.  That's a little different I think," said Koos. "Our issue on this is that we've got a time frame that we have to work within in agreement with the railroad. We know it's going to take multiple years for us to put this project together."

Koos said the memorandum of understanding the Town is signing with Union Pacific Railroad will give the town permission to establish a 5 year, temporary at grade crossing. Once signed, the clock starts ticking on securing funding for an underpass. Koos said it took eight years to secure federal funding for Uptown Station.

Council members approved agreements hiring CHG, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm and WSP/Parsons Brinkerhoff at a combined cost of nearly $100,000 to help move the TIGER grant application forward. Koos said he's "not very optimistic at all" that we'll see any dollars in the current application cycle.

"I think our strategy in applying for this TIGER at this point is to test our application and our concept of project and use that data and feedback," said Koos. "Using that information for future applications."

Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner said he's having lunch with Mayor Koos on Wednesday and hopes to learn more about Normal's application and the timing.