HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-27 GAP letter to TOP committee
July 25, 2020
Dear TOP Committee,
It has now been 5 months since our last meeting and 8 months since our presentation. A lot has
happened in that period of time. You have one new member, a beautiful portion of the path
has already been built to the west of Nelson Road, a new Parks and Trails District was formed,
and we have been making good progress with the Montana Department of Transportation.
And of course we’ve all adapted to a new challenge and will continue to show resilience and
flexible approaches to making progress in this new environment, for example, with online
meetings such as this one. We thank the Committee for its positive engagement with the GAP
application thus far, and are grateful for the opportunity to persuade all of you that an
enthusiastic “thumbs up” should be your final conclusion.
As you know, this project creates two short half mile segments of path east of Nelson Road
which would provide access to nearly 100 miles of trail all the way from the Bridgers to Four
Corners, including the newly built M trail, Story Mill park, Cherry River Fishing access, Main
Street to the Mountains system, and finally the Valley Center and Jackrabbit pathways. That
access provides a lot of bang for the buck and would be a real victory for the City.
Despite having a lot of popular support, the project was held back for many years because it lay
outside of City boundaries. Because it crossed more than one jurisdiction it was not a high
priority for City support and funding. It faced almost insurmountable obstacles in qualifying for
other grants, obtaining rights-of-way, maintenance commitments or CIP funding. However,
with the expansion of the City and after TOP was enthusiastically approved by the people of
Bozeman, paths such as this one that partially lay outside City Boundaries were given a golden
opportunity to overcome those obstacles as projects the City could willingly contribute to.
We’d very much like to seize this golden opportunity and move forward on this important
pathway which has a great deal of public support.
We remain optimistic that TOP along with GAP’s help will be able to enable the building of both
segments of our proposal. Building both segments as part of a single project will maximize
chances for other funding such as Montana State Parks Trails Program grants and Federal
Transportation Alternative grants, and recommending our full funding request of $300,000
would therefore provide the best platform for us to move forward. We recognize that we are
competing with other worthy TOP applications/projects but believe that those projects which
already have jurisdictional and right-of-way issues sorted out and other potential resources to
draw upon are likely to succeed without TOP funding.
We stand ready to help in any way we can, including the writing of grants, negotiations with
other government agencies, and raising private funds. The project will also need support from
the City to obtain right-of-way from the rail roads, along with assistance in procuring necessary
right-of-way from Northwestern Energy and the MDT. (GAP has already opened positive
discussions with Northwestern and the MDT).
Although the current economic climate has put a dampener on fund raising, if given this full
opportunity along with sufficient time we can rise to the occasion and, as we say in Montana,
“get ‘er done”! Therefore, we request that any motion approving funding allow 2 years from
Commission approval to raise additional funding while enabling preliminary requirements such
as feasibility and design to begin at once. This is necessary because of the time required to
negotiate acquisition of rights-of-way and pursue other grants.
If the Committee decides not to recommend our total funding request, then we request that
the maximum amount available be given to Segment One along with Design funds for Segment
Two ($34,000).
Many people had this path in mind when they voted for the TOP funding and establishing the
Parks District. Please be their heroes and show you share that dream.
Sincerely,
Marilee Brown, Chair
Galla10 Alliance for Pathways
406-579-5447