FYI to the Village of Willow Springs:
Hello Safe Routes To School project sponsors!
THANK YOU so much for your patience over the last few months
as we faced the rescission and the wait for additional funding. I am very happy
to announce that our program has received the additional allocation that we
needed to release the funds for the 2008 SRTS awards, which were announced in
August 2009.
I took the official letters of award, addressed to the
sponsor on record, to our mail room this morning. If your agency is sponsoring
multiple awards, all of your letters are enclosed in the same envelope. The
letters will go out in today’s mail, so if you do not receive your letter within
a week please contact me.
It is imperative that you thoroughly read the letter(s) of
award, as it has important information about the project, upcoming required
webinar, deadline by which you must have a contract/agreement in place with IDOT
that allows you to move forward with your project, deadlines for project
completion, and information on the survey information you must provide before
and after implementation of your project/program.
Please remember that these are letters of award, which
include your next steps as a project sponsor. They are NOT notices to proceed
with work and incur costs. You must have a contract/agreement in place with
IDOT prior to incurring any costs. Any costs incurred prior to the notice to
proceed cannot be reimbursed.
Please see below for the SRTS Webinar Information for
December 11 and December 15. Please note that your attendance at either of
these webinars is mandatory, as outlined in your letter of award. You can
register for either of these webinars by clicking on the appropriate link
below. Each webinar will include identical information, walking you through the
process for getting your contract/agreement in place with the Department.
Please list the organization you are representing when you fill out the webinar
registration form - it will allow me to better track participant
attendance.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via
e-mail or phone.
Thank you again for your patience, and we look forward to
working with you to implement your SRTS project(s)!
Best,
Megan
16 comments:
Who is Megan and where did reposted letter come from?
Best,
Edmund F.
The letter was from Megan Holt,
Safe Routes to School Coordinator at the Illinois Department of Transportation.
The money is available - such fantastic news!
Mandatory webinars are next week. The village should organize their teams or get a committee together so there are checks and balances and a distribution of tasks. There is much work to be done and it's doubtful, based on prior instances, the one person will be able to handle it all in addition to their regular responsibilities. This is an opportunity that won't come along again. It's time to get organized and busy!
It will be interesting to see what happens. We will be watching this one.
Thanks for the update and fast response.
Hopefully what Megan says is true and that the State of Illinois will release the funds as the money is given to the Safe Routes at IDOT. If the money gets frozen after work has been completed, this spells disaster for local municipalities. Willow Springs would have to burden the initial payment as well as the short(or long) time frame waiting for the State reimbursement.
If I was Willow Springs I would want a guarantee prior to expenditure on this one, especially when we are dealing with the State of Illinois.
Yeah it's probably just better to let a kid get hit by a car. A funeral would be a heck of a lot cheaper than a sidewalk.
Sorry to post this in this section, but do not forget about the park board meeting on Tuesday, hopefully at 6:30 p.m. I cannot unfortunately make it, hopefully Gina you can. Interested to hear if they will have the exact Chalet renovation repair costs. Also, wondering why some September meeting minutes are not available on their website yet. Kristin
Robert,
Thats not it at all. All municipalities are seeing falling revenues and are in survival mode at this point.
We would all love to see sidewalks moving forward.
What we don't want to see is the financial problems that these grants are currently causing for municipalities as the state of Illinois takes from these revenue accounts to pay for general expenses.
When my family moved into this area many years ago, we enjoyed the rural feel of the area with blacktop roads, large properties and no sidewalks, curbs, or gutters in many of the main and side roads. That has been changing over time as large tracts of land have been carved up into subdivisions and curbs, gutters, and sidewalks.
I would like to see sidewalks that link many of our parks and schools so that we can get there by walking, running, or biking. Burr Ridge had a great plan in the late 90's to link all of their subdivisions with sidewalks, etc, and some of this has been occurring in the last 5-10 years as well.
So lets not go negative on this one. Lets see if all of the parts(Illinois, Willow Springs, Pleasantdale School District, Illinois Department of Transportation, Cook County, and Safe Routes to School) can work nicely together and get the job done.
Lets not do it if Willow Springs or the School District gets left "holding the bag". Cause after all its our "bag".
Edmund F. -
I am sorry for going back to the park district, but this is where my cause lies. What is your opinion about the recent renovation they did at the Chalet? They began the project saying that it was going to cost around $270,000. This after the Board President explained in a 45 minute speech that the park district was broke. They say they were going to use money promised from some legislators in June, but at the last board meeting their lobbyist said the money will not be available for at least another year - which puts them way past the end of the current fiscal year. $270,000 was the beginning cost, but the actual figures have yet to be communicated. In my eyes this is a similar situation to what you are alluding to with the Village of Willow Springs, correct? The park district assumed they would have the money to cover the cost of the Chalet, however, that money is not immediately available. My concern is as a taxpayer, where is the money going to come from? Are we going to see increased taxes or a referendum. Just interested in your thoughts. I am all for improvements in our community, I just think projects need to be thought out. Kristin
I live near Trinity Church and would love to be able to walk my child to school, however at this time, I am afraid I will get hit by the dangerous Wolf Road traffic.
I agree that we must be cautious when spending promised tax dollars. I was also skeptical that PDale School Dist. 107 would not receive the $180,000 plus stimulus money - but they did get the money and now each classroom has a promethean board!
If the Village of Willow Springs does not go through the process of getting the Safe Routes money (which was awarded)we will probably never have such an opportunity again and the children on both sides of the river will lose out!
Edmund F - are you there? You usually take an introspective look at things, I am surprised you have yet to make a comment.
Sorry, I posted and it did not take a few days ago.
Agree, agree, and agree.
This grant process definitely needs to be tee-d up and ready to go. All parties need to take the steps necessary to get the grant.
However, the State may not release these funds. Other grant programs are being used for general expenses of the State.
Willow Springs needs to be very careful so as not to pay for the sidewalk installation and then wait for the funding, or the worst case scenerio, not get it at all.
"Willow Springs needs to be very careful so as not to pay for the sidewalk installation and then wait for the funding..."
It is a RE-IMBURSEMENT GRANT! The village must do the work first and then will get re-reimbursed. That's how this type of grant works.
A detailed travel plan was required and approved before any municipality was allowed access to the application.
The state/federal government utilizes this type of grant to prevent municipalities from taking the money and not using it for its intended purpose.
With the sordid past and reputation the Village of Willow Springs has, this type of grant makes perfect sense.
Edmund F -
How is it that you seem to know so much about the school and village but not the park district? I would think as knowledgable as you are that you would have some type of comment. Would like your response.
Kristin,
I do not know about the type of grant that the park district was in line for. But I do know that if it is set up like the Willow Springs Reimbursement grant, these are the grants that are not being funded by the state today. The Promethean board grant was teed up prior to the State beginning to grab all of money for general expenses.
So If as, Gina says, Willow Springs spends the money(which it does not have) and the State does not distribute the money, or waits for 12-24 months to distribute the money, Willow Springs has put itself in trouble, financially.
And that is our money.
The Park District sounds like it did spend the money, and now the State will not be distributing, or it will be a while. Because of this it has put itself in a financial situation.
Edmund F -
Thank you for responding so quickly. The money was NOT a grant, it was promised from some of the area's state legislators after Katherine Parker took a trip to Springfield. At a recent Board Meeting, the lobbyist the park hired stated that the money would not be available for at least another year. The park is saying this money has been secured. To me secured means in the bank - this money ain't in the bank. We don't even know how much money was spent on the Chalet. You have to do a FOIA request to get a number - incredible. The Board President gave a lengthy speech several months ago about how the park district is in trouble financially yet they are spending money like it grows on trees. Local municipalities are laying off workers and cost cutting while our park disrict is spending, spending, spending. "Financial situation" you say is an understatement of what the park district is in. Thanks again for your interest it shows you care about your tax money.
The Safe Routes to School grant is a FEDERALLY funded grant being distributed by the state. To get more information go to http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/
The money is in place and will be reimbursed within six weeks of project completion provided the grantees follow the specifications set forth in the grant.
The Promethean boards were bought with federal stimulus dollars earmarked for IDEA and children in special education.
To learn more about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: IDEA Recovery Funds for Services to Children and Youths with Disabilities go to: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/factsheet/idea.html
You can also track the money by going to http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx
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