Aurora 3rd mile bus lane funding in jeopardy because of state budget cuts
Monday, December 20, 2010
A Regional Mobility Grant of just over $5.5 million to the City of Shoreline towards the business access/transit, or "BAT" lanes, from N 192nd Street to N 205th Street, is in jeopardy of being a victim of budget cuts.
BAT lanes are the bus lanes that run from N 145th to N 165th and where motorists turn into and emerge out of businesses on Aurora. Currently, these lanes are being constructed from N 165th through N 192nd, due for completion in mid-2011.
The purpose of the grant program is to aid local governments in funding projects such as intercounty connectivity service, park and ride lots, rush hour transit service, and capital projects that improve the connectivity and efficiency of our transportation system. In the most recent ranking, Shoreline's "third mile" project finished sixth in the Legislature's rankings, released about a week ago. While, at that juncture, the 2011-13 running total was $37.4 million, below the original $40 million target, the Governor's proposed budget cuts include halving the target for the program, which would remove Shoreline's project from those being funded.
The Legislature will ultimately decide the matter after they convene January 10, 2011.
-Brian Doennebrink. Brian is a former chair of the Shoreline Planning Commission and currently works for a transportation entity.
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2 comments:
Too bad the city staff who loves to spend taxpayer money didn't see that one coming, but they spend like there is no tomorrow.
What was the city staff thinking, that the state and federal government is some bottomless pit of money? The city staff managed to build their Taj Mahal of a city hall (too bad it looks like a Soviet era apartment building) and lie to get their property tax, which is why there were so reckless as to sign the contracts for Phase III.
Hope some heads will roll, but wait, this is the City of Shoreline, no one ever gets fired for making a mistake.
Like that failure to do any diligence on the contaminated soil where the city hall parking lot is, resulting in over $300,000 in environmental cleanup costs from the former dry cleaner soil contamination. The motto at the City of Shoreline must be we don't improve our process management, we promote our mistakes
Boy, wouldn't it be great if that third lane was open to all traffic. Then maybe we could move the commuters out of town quicker. As a result maybe the residents could actually cross Aurora without waiting for 5 minutes in a two block backup!!!!!!!! At the very least why couldn't the 3rd lane be a car pool lane (save your explanations, I know why but I still don't like it)?
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