County Searches For Funding To Complete PWF Road

By Gordon HopkinsJefferson County is searching for grants to pay for the completion of PWF Road.Jefferson County Commissioners spoke with a representative of High Street Consulting Group, at a meeting on Tuesday, March 8, to discus possible sources of funding. The CEO of High Street Consulting is Kyle Schneweis, who was formerly the director of the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT).“We had a group from Jefferson County, Nebraska, go to meet with the Nebraska Department of Transportation executive leadership back in early February, seeking funding to complete our PWF Road,” said commissioner Mark Schoenrock. “We are looking for funding to complete that road. And so the result of our presentation to the executive leadership at the Nebraska Department of Transportation resulted in them making referrals to us for various consultants that could aid and assist us in that process. One of which was High Street Consulting.”While there are a number of grants available, there is a cost associated with applying for those grants. Retaining High Street Consulting to write the grant would cost $80,000. However, Schoenrock pointed out the project is expected to cost $10 million.“This is their expertise, to put together these grants,” said Schoenrock. “Because we were talking about a significant contribution on the part of the Diller community and a significant contribution on the part of Jefferson County taxpayers to fund this, to retain them to put together this application for us. And we will be going into $10 million. That’s the amount of money that we’re talking about.”One possible grant that was considered and commissioners asked High Street to look into is the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant.Jeff Carroll, a partner with High Street, attended the meeting via Zoom, “Most of you have probably been following the politics in Washington and one of the bills, the infrastructure bill that came out, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, that RAISE grant and funding is included in. And they also had about 20 other discretionary grants that are included in that new infrastructure transportation bill.”Reviewing the criteria of the bill, Carroll recommended against applying for the grant, “This is in a rural area, so you’re competing against rural projects across the country. So you’re going to have many, many areas that are just like this, that don’t really meet these criteria all that well.”In particular, the RAISE grant has a focus on underserved, disadvantaged communities. Carroll said, “Knowing the area, looking at it, there’s no underserved, disadvantaged communities within the project area. So I do think it’s going to struggle to be honest.”Carroll recommended instead looking at some other grants that he felt would more likely pan out. One, he noted, “It’s called Rural Surface Transportation grant. It’s got $2 billion in it. Obviously, it’s a competitive grant. The focus here is,they want to improve and expand surface transportation infrastructure in rural areas. They want to do this by increasing connectivity, but for projects that have increasing connectivity, improving safety.”Carroll said the criteria for this grant has not been released yet, “Without seeing the NOFO, which is the Notice of Funding Opportunity, that comes out when they announce the grant, this one seems like it would probably be more suited for this project in Jefferson County.”Commissioners opted not to pursue the RAISE grant but follow High Street’s suggestion to wait for a grant that better matches the needs of the PWF Road project.

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