Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
My understanding is that they would not be eligible for Federal dollars under the Rail to Trail legislation, and would have to finance that portion without any Federal assistance. Others may know more about this.
|
This is a misnomer. The federal funding program is set up to cover a wide variety of alternative transportation projects. It was covered under what was known as MAP-21 (see below for applicable catagories) and now known as FAST. We have proposed running the trail along the far side of Paugus Bay (Lakeport avenue) as one of the alternative route proposals. Several of the merchants have indicated that this would be welcome as they don't even have a contiguous sidewalk. In addition, this route would go past a significant number of businesses. The route along the railroad passes virtually no businesses.
Note that NH DOT is the administrative entity for applying for Federal transportation money and they have broad discretion in distribution of funds under FAST.
The Commissioner (I believe actually the assistant Commissioner) of NH DOT held a public meeting in Meredith on December 5th. From what I heard, there is very little Federal money available even for primary transportation initiatives at the moment.
Jetskier
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/map21/factsheets/tap.cfm
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/fastact/fac...rnativesfs.cfm