Thorntown told INDOT grant rules tightened; town urged to have ready plans for October application

Collin Sullivan of consulting firm BF&S told the Town of Thorntown Council on Aug. 18 that House Bill 1461 will reduce INDOT’s Community Crossings Matching Grant (CCMG) cap from $1.5 million to $1.0 million per local unit of government per state fiscal year and move the program to a single annual call for projects. Sullivan said the 2026 call is in October and the 2027 call will be in July, and he said the funding terms for smaller communities have shifted toward an 80/20 local match requirement and that projects must be shovel-ready to be competitive.

The update, presented at the start of the council meeting, outlined several planning documents the town needs to have current to apply: a PASER rating, an asset plan, an ADA transition plan and a Title VI plan. "INDOT will require shovel-ready projects and the application window is shrinking," Collin Sullivan said, urging the council to review BF&S’s plans and agreement if it intends to pursue the October call.

Council members discussed whether to accept BF&S’s proposal to begin preparatory work. Bruce Burtner moved to accept the BF&S proposal, but the motion did not receive a second and did not advance. The council discussed financial constraints for updating required plans before the October application date.

Why this matters: CCMG funding is a common source for local road and alley projects; a lower per-unit cap and a higher local match could reduce the size or number of projects Thorntown can pursue without additional local funding. The town now faces a near-term choice: fund the planning and compliance work to apply this October or wait for future cycles and risk missing competitive opportunities.

Next steps: BF&S distributed plans and an agreement for council review. The council did not authorize the firm to begin work at the meeting and will need to decide whether to allocate funds to update the required plans ahead of the October call.