Northern Kentucky Streetcar Committee Chair Ian Budd and Newport City Commissioner Beth Fennell traveled to Washington D.C. last week to solicit input on potential sources of funding for a streetcar study.
Budd provided this recap of the trip:
Newport City Commissioner Beth Fennell and Northern Kentucky Streetcar Committee Chair Ian Budd traveled to Washington D.C. to gather information on potential funding for the streetcar study (provided photo).
Visit to Washington DC February 24th – 26th, 2016
Purpose: To further our goal to fund a study to extend the Cincinnati Street Car to Northern Kentucky, City of Newport Commissioner Beth Fennell and Northern Kentucky Streetcar Committee chair Ian Budd flew to Washington DC this week to attend meetings arranged by consultants engaged by the City of Newport. The purpose of the meetings was to make contacts, present our research to date, ask for feedback on the viability of our proposal, explore sources of funding, and learn what are our next steps.
Initial findings from the visit: City of Newport Commissioner Beth Fennell and Northern Kentucky Streetcar Committee chair Ian Budd attended a total of 8 meetings with 15 people.
These included officials from the Department of Transportation, Federal Transportation Administration, Senator (Mitch) McConnell R- Kentucky, Senator (Rand) Paul, R- Kentucky, U. S. Representative (Thomas) Massie, R-Vanceburg, and 5 consultants.
We came away from these meetings with personal connections for several high-level contacts. We presented an overview of our initial plans and answered many specific questions on the research we have done.
The feedback we received in all of our meetings was that our proposal contains the elements of a successful project and that we should most certainly pursue next steps. We learned about the many funding options and rules and regulations that govern them.
The Department of Transportation will provide follow up consultation on best options to pursue for our specific project. We also have been given a list of connections that we need to follow up with at the State and local levels.
In overview, we found the visit to be very productive and informative. We are very encouraged by the responses we received to take this project to the next level.
NKY Streetcar Committee
