It might be a longshot but Garvin County officials are still making plans to go after a grant jackpot worth several million dollars.
Up for grabs nationwide are TIGER grants, which stands for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery.
Claire Murphy, a grant writer working with county officials here, told all three commissioners earlier this week the numbers are huge for this transportation program.
“Think big. We’re talking millions of dollars. We’re talking about new grants, stimulus money,” Murphy said.
For this county she said it appears any projects would focus on bridge or road improvement.
There are a number of catches included, such as any funding applications must be completed fairly quickly. The deadline for submitting an application is Sept. 15.
Projects themselves must also be big since the federal stimulus money included in the program is big.
For example, Murphy said with few exceptions any projects eventually approved for funding must cost a minimum of $20 million.
That’s the reason she suggested the possibility of a project partnership with another surrounding county or even with an area tribe.
“You might want to consider going in with another county,” Murphy said.
Another requirement is projects must be started quickly and completed within a very tight window of time.
“The preference will go to projects that can be finished within two years. It can be big but you have to be ready to go,” she said.
According to Murphy, the program is focused on transportation improvements that also factor in the economic impact.
“You’ll be looking at ways to improve roads and bridges; helping people getting to and from a job. The number of jobs created and saved is a big part of this.”
Specifically, Murphy said the program is targeting projects that help “new private sector expansion.”
“You’re not going to create the perfect project,” she told commissioners.
“You’re going to push forward with the things you can get done.”
One of the commissioners, Johnny Mann of District 3, believes any application from this county would likely include a series of projects rather than a single larger one.
“We’re not going to come up with one big project,” Mann said.
“It’s going to be a lot of smaller projects, probably the ones we’ve already engineered.”
Even though Murphy believes states like California and New York are likely to get most of the funding because of their large amount of needs, she told commissioners Oklahoma is going to get its share.
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