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Riverfront Authority gets large grant
With the help of two grants, Fort Scott and Bourbon County residents could soon see development at the Riverfront Park.
Two grants totaling $1,645,000 have been awarded to the Riverfront Authority to develop and construct of trails, a road and parking.
The larger of the two grants -- $1.545 million -- came from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Public Lands Highways Discretionary Program which provides funding for transpiration projects adjacent -- to or through -- public lands, such as the Fort Scott National Historic Site. It will be used to build the Park Loop Road and parking areas for recreational vehicles and equestrian areas, Riverfront Authority Board of Directors Chairman Dean Mann said.
Estimated project cost is $5 million. Mann said the grant is "a very significant chunk of funding to help us."
Mann added the money "really does some of the major things that we need to get done that people will be able to see."
The Park Loop Road will be a two-way, graded road built on park land and existing city streets. The loop will begin on the east as it connects to North Clark Street and follow north before turning west and continuing under U.S. Highway 69 through the northernmost existing underpass. From there, the road will follow the existing roadbed to meet Maple Ridge Park Road to its intersection at National Avenue.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded $417.3 million in grants to fund efforts across the country. Kansas received $3.9 million to fund seven projects. In Kansas, the Riverfront Authority project was the second largest grant awarded, behind the $1,650,000 grant to implement SMART Work Zone Technology -- using real-time traffic data to inform drivers of work zone traffic conditions across the state.
The Federal Highway Administration accepted applications for 14 programs and received more than 1,800 applications from every state, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., totaling nearly $13 billion.
A state-by-state list of Fiscal Year '11 grants is available at: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pressroom/fhwa1137/.
The Riverfront Authority also received a $100,000 grant through the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to develop trails in the park. Mann said trails will be focused in the park area between Mill Creek and the Marmaton River, where the annual Riverfront Festival is held. Mann said the funds will help get the trails started, however, plans also include trails that extend to Gunn Park and the Old Military Bridge.
"We still have a lot more trails to build, but this certainly puts in the road and the parking," Mann said.
Mann said $400,000 was made available during the 2011 fiscal year for the engineering phase. Once the engineering is done, the rest of the funding will be made available and construction can begin. He said he expects Park Loop Road construction to start in "six months to a year" and the trails should open next summer.
Including grants, donations and in-kind services, the Riverfront Authority has amassed $1,670,000 of the $5 million it needs to complete the project. Proceeds from the 2009 Fort Scott Community Gala were used to fund the first phase of the master plan.
The Riverfront Authority is continuing to seek out grant opportunities, Mann said, adding that the organization is in the process of applying for two more. They are applying for a $400,000 Brownfields Grant through the Environmental Protection Agency that would be used to clean up debris and items that have been dumped along the river banks. They are also seeking a $90,000 grant to fund moving the historic Long Shoals Bridge from its current location over the Little Osage River to the Riverfront Park for a pedestrian span.
"We've got some other things in the works that we hope are going to follow what we're doing now," Mann said. "People will start seeing a real change on that riverfront."