The Kenai City Council adopted a resolution supporting the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s application for a Safe Streets and Roads for All action grant and authorizing the city to be included as a joint applicant.
City Manager Paul Ostrander tells the Kenai City Council that the Kenai Peninsula Borough suggested that the municipalities in the borough apply for this action grant:
“What this does is it’s a planning grant that there’s a 20% local match of which the city of Kenai would be responsible for about $21,500 of this match. This would essentially look at all of the ways that people move on the Borough and determine what can be done to make pedestrian pass or highways or any of those things safer. Once the action plan is completed, that means that an entity would be qualified to apply for, then an implementation grant, of which I believe there’s $5 billion of federal money that’s going to be available over the next five years. If you don’t have an action plan grant, which this money would do, you’re not eligible to apply for the implementation grant. This would be the first step to get not only the Borough but all of the municipalities in the Borough eligible to apply for these implementation grants.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorizes up to $108 billion to support public transportation and establish this new program with $5 billion in appropriated funds over the next five years. For Federal FY22, there is up to $1 billion available for regional, local, and tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injury.
Through developing an Action Plan, the city would be able to pursue Implementation Grants through the Safe Streets and Roads for All program in the future and to pursue other grant funding focused on improving roadway safety and improvements to transportation infrastructure.
If the grant is approved, the Action Plan will be funded at an 80/20 cost share rate.