Rats.
It’s looking like the Rogue Valley MPO (municipal planning organization) will not be awarding ACS with CMAQ funding this year. I just returned from the Advisory Committee meeting at the Council of Governments, and I’m sad to report that in the lengthy, one hour discussion the committee had on the CMAQ grant candidates, ACS didn’t even make it to the table.
Looks like CMAQ air quality funds for Jackson County will go to pay for road paving projects after all. There were 7 potential projects applying for funding. Two were RVTD expansion projects (it wouldn’t have been quite so sad if either of these had won, extended bus service, I can deal with), one was a city of Medford vehicle purchase, one was a Jackson County vehicle purchase, two were road construction projects (one in Ashland and one in Jacksonville), and finally, Ashland CarShare. we scored 5th out of 7. The entire discussion held by committee members centered around the importance of “backfunding” projects that had already been partially funded and were projected to go well over budget.
Did you know that it costs over a million dollars to pave 700 feet of roadway? I was astounded. And discouraged.
I learned a lot, though. Just attending the meeting allowed me to see how our county operates and helps me to understand the decision making process. I am hopeful that we will be poised and ready to submit an application in the next funding cycle (in 18 months or so) that will catch the attention of the committee members and help facilitate an understanding of the extreme importance of carsharing in the Rogue Valley
