Poplar Bluff City Council unanimously agreed to pursue two grants to aid the expansion of Highway 67 into the future Interstate 57 during a special meeting Friday.
The first is the Rural and Tribal Assistance Pilot Program through the Missouri Department of Transportation, said Highway 67 Corporation Chairman Bill Robison. It is a smaller grant and maxes out at $320,000, but “it would cover simpler things like benefit-cost analyses.”
City manager Matt Winters explained the city would only need to seek $175,000 since it has a $50,000 match agreement, which would bring the total amount of cash the city could raise to $225,000.
The Multimodal Progress Discretionary Grant is a federal program with three categories: Mega, INFRA and Rural Surface Transportation grants. The latter “has things in there talking about persistent poverty, historically disadvantaged communities, and we meet some of those categories,” said Robison.
He noted these keywords make it similar to the RAISE grant, which the city unsuccessfully applied for this spring.
The city discussed applying for a $14 million grant to offset inflation for Phase 1B and Phase 2 of the highway expansion. There is already state and local funding set aside for the $39-40 million contract and the project itself is ready to begin, explained Robison, so he is optimistic about Poplar Bluff’s chances.
“The project is shovel-ready. MoDOT has the design complete (and) right of way is 100% purchased. Part of this grant talks about getting the project ready to do within an 18-month period. We check that box,” he said.
Winters agreed, “It seems like it’s a home run because it’s shovel-ready — it’s more than shovel-ready. I think this gives us the best chance, the best odds because it is so ready to go.”
The council voted unanimously to apply for both grants. Robison thanked them afterward for the long-term effort the city has put into expanding Highway 67.
“It wears on you but it’s truly a team effort and (there are) a lot of people putting time and energy into it, so that’s what’s going to make it successful,” he said.
The council’s next meeting is a public property tax hearing at 6:45 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21, in the city council chambers at 301 S. Fifth St., followed by a regular meeting at 7 p.m.