Colfax County commissioners discussed the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) TIGER grant closeout and the county’s remaining reporting obligations during a public meeting. Justin Minhart, present for the discussion, said the official grant closeout deadline is Sept. 30 and that annual performance reports will be required for three years starting next March.

The matter mattered because the county still needs to submit a federal grant management amendment and supplemental internal control language to its financial policies, officials said. Acting county manager Audrey Pryor told the commission she planned to meet with the current county manager next week to review recommended changes and submit the documents to FRA. "My next step is to meet with the current county manager, so we should get that scheduled next week and go over any changes that we think we want to recommend to the commission and submit that to FRA," Pryor said.

Justin Minhart outlined the remaining obligations: "The only thing that the official close out is September 30. We've provided them everything, that's required. They have not made any additional requests. However, I'll point out there is a continuing performance reporting requirements, March 31 of each year, for 3 years, starting with this coming March." Minhart said the performance data—metrics such as train speed or ride smoothness—would likely be provided by BNSF Railway but that the county should be prepared to gather and submit the requested statistics.

Pryor also told the commission that the grant auditor’s findings remain outstanding and could affect closeout: "I think they would like to see the audit completed. So we've been pushing on that side, on our end, providing everything for the audit. But I think there's some backlog on the vendor side. So we're anxiously awaiting some findings that could be responded to because that is a piece of this puzzle." The commission did not take formal action on the item during the discussion.

The county will schedule follow‑up work with staff and expects to provide the FRA with revised financial policy language and any auditor responses before the closeout deadline.