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COTA not selected for $4.71M transportation grant
What could have been the startup process in building a public transportation system on Saipan has been stalled after the Commonwealth Office of Transit Authority failed to obtain a $4.7 million grant.
Special assistant for public transportation Tom Camacho told Saipan Tribune yesterday that COTA’s application for the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery Grant VI with the U.S Department of Transportation was not selected.
COTA’s application for the Federal Transit Authority’s Ladders of Opportunity grant was also not accepted, Camacho said.
The two grants were supposed to fund the acquisition of 11 vehicles and installation of 180 bus stops or transfer stations, and partially fund COTA’s maintenance building as well as its collateral equipment.
“These two grants are highly competitive and there’s more applications than the available funds to be awarded. Unfortunately, this unfavorable results have set us back in implementing the new Saipan Fixed-Flex Route System, which is targeted for implementation in 2015,” Camacho said.
He said he will be meeting with his COTA team and the Commonwealth Public Transportation Advisory Board to talk about their other options.
The TIGER grant was submitted in April this year and COTA was supposed to receive notification from USDOT on or before September.
Camacho earlier said the TIGER grant will be used to buy eight 24-passenger low floor medium-built buses. Some $450,000 would go to bus stop infrastructure. It will also be used for three transfer stations and one mobility hub for the fixed-flex route system. About $185,000 was to be used to purchase transit technologies such as smart cards, GPS vehicles, radio, and PDA communications.
