Lander is seeking federal funding for two local projects that will enhance pedestrian safety in town.
The more expensive project costs $1.25 million, but assistant mayor RaJean Strube Fossen said the Wyoming Department of Transportation would cover more than 90 percent of that total through its Transportation Alternatives Program, leaving the city to pay about $119,000 out of the local 1 percent sales tax fund.
The project will implement several Complete Streets upgrades on Baldwin Creek Road from Main Street to Baldwin Creek Elementary School, and on South Ninth Street from Main Street to Fremont Street, Strube Fossen said.
“It will do a lane diet (and) there will be multi-modal pathways,” she said. “There will be multi-modal transportation pathways all the way.”
First Street, Park Pathway
Another TAP grant could help fund a planning and design study for the Popo Agie River Park Pathway Project, Strube Fossen said.
The money will also go toward “some temporary measures at that First Street and Main Street intersection crossing,” as well as the creation of some rights-of-way for pedestrians traveling “all the way to the brand-new Popo Agie River Park.”
Councilmember Julia Stuble said it was “fabulous” to hear that there may be upgrades coming to the intersection of Main and First streets, where many residents have requested safer pedestrian alternatives.
Strube Fossen said the city has spent seven years trying to “get a different configuration of (pedestrian) crossing there, and none of them have been approved by WYDOT.”
“That’s why we’re including temporary measures (in this grant),” she said. “(We’ll find) something we can put in there on a trial basis, see how it works for three months, and get that information to WYDOT and see what they would accept for a solution.”
The study is estimated to cost $200,000, but Strube Fossen said about $180,980 would come out of WYDOT’s TAP fund, leaving the city to pay about $19,000 in 1 percent sales tax money.
The Lander City Council approved both TAP grant application submissions during a regular meeting Tuesday.
For more information contact the City of Lander at 332-2870.