Montgomery County holds a special townhall meeting to explain a potential project and address citizen concerns.

 

At Wednesday night's townhall meeting, Montgomery County Administrator Jonathan Booe explained RAISE grants and laid out the proposed road construction project the grant would support. RAISE stands for Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity. The funding comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation and is intended to be used for road, rail and transit projects. Booe says Montgomery County is applying for the grant for a major road project near the Bartlett Soybean Plant.

 

Booe says the project would help alleviate traffic congestion and reduce the risk of accidents on the roads surrounding the current Bartlett facility and the proposed Azure plant.

 

The estimated cost for the project would be around $15.5 million. The RAISE grant would cover 80% of that. another grant from the state would cover an additional $3 million, meaning that Montgomery County taxpayers would only have to cover about $155,000 of the total cost*. Booe went on to explain that if the county is not approved for the grant, a more limited version of the plan would still be put in place and that other grants could be obtained to help reduce the cost to taxpayers.

 

The complete presentation can be viewed here (fast forward to approximately 10:00 to the beginning of the presentation).

 

*A previous version of this story omitted the state grant and stated that the portion Montgomery County taxpayers would be responsible for would be $3 million