The Town of Normal is pulling back on its Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant application for a year. The $14 million plus request would have funded a pedestrian underpass below the train tracks in Uptown. Mayor Chris Koos says the town did not want to get in the way of other requests of the TIGER program.
"I know there was some consternation from the city of Bloomington that there are competing grants happening. That's one of the issues. We've heard of some grants that might come from the state of Illinois that could positively effect our community or McLean County, let's say," he said.
Mayor Koos would not say what those state grant requests would be.
He also said the underpass funding request is not quite ready anyway.
"We will continue with our background analysis on the grant so that we're fully ready to apply next year. And we'll use that information to look at other granting opportunities such as Fast Lane or any other transportation grants that may be available," Koos said.
The Fast Lane Program is part of the recently passed transportation bill. Koos said guidelines for that infrastructure program are not yet out.
Koos said he does not believe the timeline for the underpass would be greatly affected. He said this was always going to be a multi year process anyway. Koos said he also does not think it would affect Uptown 2.0 projects. He said he would be very surprised if those are funded within two years.
