Jonesboro Mayor Harold Copenhaver announced Thursday that the City, in partnership with Arkansas State University and with the support of the region’s Congressional delegation and other leadership, will apply for $20 million in funding that would create critical infrastructure to accommodate Northeast Arkansas for generations to come.
The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant is one of several for which the City and its partners will apply as the federal government offers an unprecedented amount of stimulus and recovery funding. It comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which four years ago provided the $89 million grant that allowed Jonesboro to widen roads and build railroad overpasses that are now completed or soon will be.
“The RAISE application includes 21 miles of multi-use trail featuring cutting edge designs with rest areas, maps, emergency connections and wifi hotspots that weave through Jonesboro,” Copenhaver said. “But this vision is so much more than a trail.”
“This would include areas dedicated to flood mitigation and broadband access. It will help both local and commercial traffic, increase accessibility for residents, businesses and AState students. And it will provide key tools for redeveloping needed areas of Jonesboro. For our future, this is a game changer.”
Winning the grant would require a 20-percent match – $4 million – by the City, which could come from a variety of sources including partnerships.
“Similar to the TIGER grant that did so much to help traffic around Jonesboro, there is no way we could do this with our current funding stream,” Copenhaver said.
Jonesboro currently is lacking in safe, non-vehicular transit access, giving pedestrians and bicyclists options other than roads heavily used by motor vehicles, as public and private studies have long pointed out. This project includes a plan for an Arkansas Veterans Wall of Honor railroad crossing commemorating Arkansans wounded in military service, and the long-sought connection that will redevelop areas between downtown and Arkansas State University.
City Grants Director Regina Burkett said this particular grant fits the description of the RAISE purpose of creating “a sustainable energy future” including infrastructure funding to connect cities with paths and create an interstate system for cyclists and walkers.
Copenhaver notes that building of the trail will include watershed areas that reduce potential for flooding, as well as provide areas for safe exercise.
“This is a step toward opening further doors that keep Jonesboro on the forefront of modern cities, without the overwhelming cost to taxpayers,” he said.
Support letters for this grant have come from Gov. Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Sen. John Boozman, Congressman Rick Crawford, Arkansas State University Chancellor Kelly Damphousse, Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Young and other agency and nonprofit leaders around the region.
I wonder if the city will spend the money on stuff that no one will use like when they spent all that money on the exercise equipment at Craighead forest that no one uses. I’ll bet that most of the money will go in their pockets. Speaking of money whatever happened to that thief Kade Holliday looks to me like no one wants to talk about it hoping everyone will forget about it and that’s exactly what the city wants.