Federal funds for bike racks may go unused
By CHARLES M. BARTHOLOMEW
Gary Post Tribune (Indiana)
May 24, 2008
PORTAGE -- A chunk of money to help communities, schools, and qualified agencies in Northwest Indiana put in bicycle racks may go unused, despite several extensions in the deadline for applications.
Mitch Barloga, transportation planner with the Ped & Pedal Committee of the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission, said Thursday the 11 applications received so far for reduced-cost U-racks for bicycle parking fall short of the $50,000 available from the Rack-Em Up! Bike Rack & Locker Subsidy Program that NIRPC is administering locally for the Federal Highway Administration and the Indiana Department of Transportation.
Applicants are eligible to receive racks, with no limits specified, for $90 each, for which they will be reimbursed 80 percent of the cost.
Barloga told the committee's May meeting the final deadline of June 6 will not be extended, after it had been pushed back several times from early April.
"It's the first time for the program, and they've been trying to work out the procurement process that will get the money back to these people. They say something will be figured out within a month," he said.
Applications for 273 racks and five lockers have been filed since March from entities in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, at a total cost of $33,570. At the 80 percent reimbursement rate, it works out to a little over half of the available funds.
He said the town of Munster has requested 68 racks for eight local parks and the community pool, the city of Valparaiso has asked for 25 racks for six parks and five lockers for the Village Station development, and the city of East Chicago wants 50 racks at nine parks. The Porter County Convention, Visitors & Recreation Commission says it will take 50 racks for various locations to be announced.
Other applicants include the city of Crown Point, the Crown Point Schools, the towns of Beverly Shores, Chesterton and Pottawattomie Park, and the LaPorte County Home.
Barloga said the state will divert any unused monies into other programs.
He also said no applications have been filed with NIRPC for this year's Safe Routes to Schools program, which has a Wednesday deadline. He said it would be difficult to start preparing applications for either program now, because of the requirement of a public survey as part of the process.
In the 2006 round of grants from INDOT, Barloga criticized the state for approving only two of 14 requests submitted from the three-county area.
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