City prioritizes projects for grant funding; road bond could indirectly fund boulevard
The indirect use of the city’s per capita share from the $54.6 million bond issue voters approved to finance road improvements could be applied to a grant match enabling a boulevard concept along the Malvern Avenue approach to downtown, according to a proposal the Hot Springs Board of Directors heard last week.
City Engineer Gary Carnahan told the board part of the city’s paving budget could pay the 20-percent match for a Federal Highway Administration Transportation Alternatives Program grant, with money from the city’s bond share reimbursing the paving budget.
The city appropriated $993,000 from its $7.3 million share to overlay 5.5 miles of streets last year. It also planned to direct $1 million of the bond proceeds to match a federal grant expanding the Exchange Street Parking Plaza, but Garland County pre-empted the disbursement.
The county, which has allocation authority over the money, said the parking deck project was inconsistent with ballot language voters approved during a June 2016 special election authorizing the levy of a five-eighth-scent sales tax to secure the bonds.
The tree-lined median from East Grand to Grove Street, with trees flanking both sides of Malvern, is one of four projects the city wants to submit for 2018 TAP funding. It ranked third in the prioritized list presented to the board last week and is seeking the maximum $500,000 grant, requiring the city to put up a $131,250 match.
The TV Hill Wetlands Trailhead topped the list, followed by 2,700 feet of sidewalks connecting Hot Springs High School to the new Hot Springs Junior Academy. Carnahan told the board the school district would provide the $40,000 match for the $200,000 project.
A $119,000 sidewalk repair and extension project in areas heavily trafficked by pedestrians concluded the list.
Carnahan told the board the Arkansas Department of Transportation may not award TAP grants next year or in 2020, putting the onus on the board to adopt a resolution supporting and prioritizing the four projects before the May 1 application deadline.
Carnahan told the board the city garnered three TAP grants in 2015 and two in 2016, but the 2017 cycle’s limited funding prevented the city from receiving one last year.
“We felt like we should be aggressive,” he told the board. “We’re applying for four grants, which is more than we’ve ever received before, but we feel like since this is the last year we should ask for as much as we can.”
Transportation department spokesman Danny Straessle said it plans to award TAP grants during the next two years.
“We expect to have application cycles and award grants in 2019 and 2020,” he said Wednesday. “We just don’t know at this point what amount of money will be available for consideration.”
The boulevard concept would build on the first phase of the project the University of Arkansas Community Design Center presented to the board last year. It was awarded a
$40,000 contract to develop a concept plan for the Malvern Avenue approach into downtown. The tree-lined boulevard would extend south from the musician sculpture garden, or phase one of the project, the city is planning to build in front of the National Baptist Hotel. The sculpture would honor prominent African-American musicians who performed there when the area was known as Black Broadway.
Carnahan told the board the city expects to secure funding for phase one, but other legs of the eight-block revitalization plan are currently unfunded.
The Community Development Block Grant annual action plan the board adopted last year ranked the allocation of $30,000 of CDBG funds to match a Federal Transportation Administration grant for the Malvern Avenue project second among the 31 projects submitted for funding consideration.
“We don’t have funding for the next phase,” Carnahan told the board. “We’re looking at TAP grants. In order to come up with matching funds, we’re proposing that money be taken from the paving budget then replace the paving budget dollars with (the city’s road bond share).
“We really don’t have any other way to come up with the matching dollars for a Malvern Avenue TAP grant application.”
The TV Hill Wetlands Trailhead, the project the city said has the highest priority for TAP grant funding, is slated for the end of the 4.2-mile Hot Springs Creek Greenway Trail that will connect downtown to Lake Hamilton when it’s completed. The $500,000 maximum grant would also be sought for the project, which includes an 80-foot pedestrian bridge spanning the creek.
Parks and Trails Director Jean Wallace told the board the creek mouth emptying into Lake Hamilton has been designated as an emerging wetland, requiring special construction techniques sensitive to the area’s delicate ecosystem.
“It’s really more than a trailhead,” she said. “It’s the pedestrian bridge, the bridge abutments, the approach to the bridge. It goes up Tatum Street a little bit, and it goes up TV Hill Road for a little bit. It’s a pretty expensive project, but if we get full funding we should be able to complete everything except a prefabricated restroom that would come in a later phase.
“It will include some parking and security lighting.”
A TAP grant paid for the quarter-mile Greenway extension under construction between the current terminus at the Seneca-Adams street intersection and more than 800 feet south of the Golf Links Road bridge. Another TAP grant will extend the shareduse asphalt trail to TV Hill, where it will connect with the wetlands trailhead.
Carnahan said donations from the Friends of the Park nonprofit and design work that’s nearing completion bode well for the trailhead’s grant application. Money for the match wasn’t budgeted in 2018, requiring the board to approve a series of budget transfers if it chooses to fund the $131,250 contribution.
“We feel like it has the best chance of getting funded,” he told the board. “Our plans are 90-percent complete. That gives you extra points when you make your application. And we have private funding support, which also adds points.”