Discussion on the $1.2 million plan for the Lynn Lane multi-use path connecting McKee Park and the Mississippi State University campus was tabled at Tuesday night?s Starkville Board of Aldermen meeting.
Starkville in Motion President Devon Brenner said in the grant the city of Starkville was required to provide a 20 percent match for the funds rewarded.
?That would be an in-kind match,? she said. ?We learned [Tuesday] that the Mississippi Department of Transportation would no longer be accepting an in-kind contribution and the city would be required to come up with the $300,000 match on its own through cash.”
City engineer Edward Kemp said the in-kind match are services provided by the city.
“Originally we thought that things such as utility relocations or engineering done by city staff or maybe even city materials, equipment and personnel could be counted towards the in-kind match,” he said. “According to MDOT and several highway administrations, those types of activities are not eligible for the 20 percent match.”
Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey said he asked the board to consider tabling the matter until they have a chance to its their options.
“We’re going to have to look at our budget and see if there’s anyway possible for us or look to see if there are any alternatives to coming up with the money that we would have to invest in this project,” he said.
Ron Cossman, associate research professor at the Social Science Research Center, said there are talks being held with MDOT to find out what the apparent change in policy means for the project.
“I can’t imagine that they would suddenly require all the cities in Mississippi to suddenly come up with the 20 percent,” he said. “If you think about some of those small cities, the Sturgesses of Mississippi having to all of a sudden pony up 20 percent cash, I just can’t see that happening.”
Brenner said the Starkville in Motion group will investigate why the ruling was changed, among other plans.
The group will work together with the city to help procure extra finances, he said.
“We will see if there is a way to find the money,” Brenner said. “We’ll investigate different sources of funding. We’ll see if there’s other grants or private donations we can come up with.”
Cossman also said they will continue to try to get more information from MDOT.
“We need clarification from them because this appears to be a change from the procedures that we were operating under, but it may not be anything,” he said. “Sometimes these things turn out to be just a matter of miscommunication. Sometimes two departments are working on the same project at the same time and they don’t know what each other’s doing.”
He said the project is too important to the city of Starkville and the students of Mississippi State University to be derailed.
“It’s something that’s going to connect a lot of different nodes of activity,” Cossman said. ” It’s going to connect the university campus with student housing, it’s going to connect some of the residential neighborhoods to city parks and to be able to get that built is just going to mean so much for recreation and alternative transportation in town.”
Kemp said the project is currently in the design stage.
“We’re almost through with the conceptual design,” he said. “Once we get through with the conceptual design, they will present that to the Board of Aldermen, and assuming Board of Aldermen approval, they will proceed with the final engineering design.”
He said the path will be mainly separated from the road.
“The original scope of work was to extend the bike path from the intersection of Blackjack [road] and Locksley Way,” Kemp said. “The path would run along Locksley Way to Montgomery Street and south on Montgomery to Lynn Lane and then Lynn Lane all the way to McKee Park.”
Cossman said the path through the university will be approximately 1,100 feet long.
“It will continue through that intersection, cross the street, down the hill, over a little creek and come up on the hill on Robert L. Jones Drive, also commonly referred to as Sorority Row,” he said. “Mississippi State is responsible for building that segment of the multi-use path.”
Brenner said Starkville in Motion is a citizen advocacy group.
“Our goal is to promote bicycles trails, bicycle lanes, sidewalks, paths and those kinds of things in the city of Starkville,” she said.