Rural communities get help submitting TIGER III grants
Smart Growth America (SGA) and Charlier & Associates are helping five rural communities to submit TIGER III grants on October 31. The program is being funded in part by the Rockefeller Foundation.
Three of the communities — Red Lodge, and Lewiston, Montana, and the Smith River Rancheria native American tribe on the northern coast of California — are submitting “complete streets” projects.
Red Lodge, with a population of 2,177, has a “classic American Main Street” that is now a state highway. “The plan is to add three-dimensional depth to downtown and improve cross streets,” says Roger Millar of SGA, who is based in Montana. Similarly, the proposal is to make Lewiston’s main street, bisected by a highway, more walkable and bikable. The Smith River community, which straddles US Route 101, is proposed for a similar makeover.
An intermodal center is planned for Wiscasset, Maine, near the terminus of the Northeast Amtrak line. The proposal for Belfast, Maine, calls for a pedestrian connection from the harbor to downtown.
The idea for the program came from requests from rural communities that want to compete for TIGER grants but lack the planning, design, and financial wherewithal, Millar says. TIGER III includes a $120 million set-aside (20 percent of total funds) for rural communities.
SGA also put on two webinars this summer and provided technical assistance in this area, reports Millar. The webinar response was huge, with 400-500 communities taking part in each, he adds. “It shows the demand for this kind of work,” he says.
