Idaho might get $16 million for public transportation projects

Congress may offer as much as $16 million of stimulus money for public transportation projects in Idaho.

But in a preliminary list of ready-to-go projects, not a single construction project is inside the Treasure Valley.

What’s ready to go here in the state’s urban hub, with so many leaders and citizens clamoring for a greater emphasis on public transit?

One $2 million study.

No Downtown Boise shuttle bus. No steps toward a light rail service. Not even any new bus shelters.

Meanwhile, Sun Valley, Pocatello and Teton County each have multi-million-dollar ready-to-go lists of basic needs — buses, bus shelters and turnouts, pedestrian/cycling pathways.

“We had 48 hours to put it together,” said Kelli Fairless, executive director of Valley Regional Transit.

But Fairless and some local leaders say there’s more to it — that the list is inaccurate because there is some confusion about what information the federal government wants and which federal hoops must already be cleared in order for projects to qualify.

Now Idaho Transportation Department officials aren’t talking about the list either.

Local agencies submitted their lists to the ITD, which then compiled a master list and sent it the Federal Transportation Administration, said officials with COMPASS, the Valley’s metropolitan planning organization.

The federal government asked states to put their proposed transit projects into three categories: ready to go, imminent and long term — the problem lies in these definitions.

The Treasure Valley identified one ready-to-go project, the study, and several imminent projects, including purchasing replacement buses and commuter vans, making bus stops more accessible and adding bike racks to Downtown Boise parking garages.

Pocatello, Sun Valley and Teton County each have several million dollars in ready-to-go projects, but zero imminent projects.

Fairless said agencies used different definitions for “ready to go.” Some thought it meant the project already must be on the statewide four-year transportation capital improvement program. Others thought it meant the project fit the current stimulus time frame — ready for construction within 180 days.

Word parsing aside, some Valley transit projects simply won’t make the stimulus cut.

Read more in Tuesday's Idaho Statesman.