(Ogden's mayor) Godfrey came back to WACOG Monday to answer more questions about the project after last month’s meeting, although he said he was not asking for the group to vote on whether to approve funds.
Ogden has a pretty small chance of getting a $21.4 Federal Transit Administration grant for the downtown streetcar circulator, he said, so if the city got the money he would then come back to get funding approval.
WACOG would have to approve the estimated $5.1 million in matching f u n d s , o b t a i n e d from a quarter-cent sales tax approved by Weber voters in 2007.
They also would have to approve between $750,000 and $1 million a year in maintenance fees for the streetcar route. Those numbers worried Weber County Commissioner Ken Bischoff. He said WACOG has been more focused on a long-term streetcar project connecting downtown Ogden with Weber State University and McKay-Dee Hospital Center.
“Going out 10 years, we’ve got $10 million less in funding to build the route to the hospital,” he said, referring to the ongoing maintenance costs that would be coming from the transportation tax money.
Obviously, there has to be money in place to fund both projects. It appears, given the scarcity of resources available, that this debate may come down deciding which project is more important. If there is a way to make the Downtown Circulator work AND still build the WSU-Downtown line, then everyone wins. However, if it comes down to making the hard choice, it may be wiser to continue pressing forward with the WSU-Downtown line given the time and energy already spent on bringing it to fruition. It would be unfortunate to have recent efforts made to fund the Downtown Circulator sabatoge the promise of the WSU line.
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