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Commission agrees to press ahead with KDOT grant application for Indianapolis Avenue upgrade
Summary
Miami County staff will submit a KDOT cost-share grant application to upgrade a section of Indianapolis Avenue after Linn County withdrew its joint portion; commissioners directed staff to proceed to the Sept. 18 deadline.
Miami County will proceed with a Kansas Department of Transportation cost-share grant application to upgrade Indianapolis Avenue, despite Linn County withdrawing its joint project contribution and converting its portion to a road study, the county's project manager told commissioners.
Project manager Matt Oler said the original plan was a joint application with Linn County to hard-surface Indianapolis from the Linn County line north to roughly First Street. He told the commission that Linn County decided to submit a road study for its portion instead, which changed the scope and reduced the joint interlocal match the county had planned to present to KDOT.
The grant is due Sept. 18, Oler said, and awards are typically announced in January or February. Oler told commissioners the grant program awards a minimum of $15,850 and up to $1 million, and that proposals receive more favorable weighting if the applicant provides a local match greater than 15 percent. He said staff had considered submitting a project with a substantial local match—"we'd be paying half million, 600,000, and then we would try to go for the million," he said, describing the county contribution as roughly $500,000 to $600,000 and an overall request aiming toward $1 million.
Commissioners discussed the change in scope caused by Linn County's decision and the competitiveness of the application without the interlocal match. Several commissioners urged staff to submit the application anyway to keep the county's project competitive for future funding and because the county was close to completing the application. "Carry on. We're already down to the finish line of it. Let's see what happens with it," one commissioner said.
Oler said he can pivot to other projects if the commission prefers, but asked the commission whether to proceed with the current application. The commission did not take a formal roll-call motion on this item but staff recorded a clear direction to proceed and submit the application by the deadline.
Oler cautioned that the change in scope may reduce competitiveness because the proposed interlocal contribution vaporized with Linn County's change; he also noted staff still had some finishing work to do on drainage details before submission. The commission instructed staff to proceed with the application and to return with updates as needed.
