Federal money can be used to renovate old GTC bus depot

CEDAR RAPIDS - It's not every day that city officials turn their back on $8 million in federal money only to learn they can use the money after all.

That very thing, though, happened at City Hall where city officials have convinced the Federal Transit Administration to let the city retain access to about $8 million in federal transit funds even though the city will not use the money to build a new Intermodal Transit Facility as intended when the grant was awarded to the city a decade ago.

Last month, the City Council thought it lost the federal funds when it gave up on plans to build the Intermodal and decided to return the city's bus operation to the flood-damaged Ground Transportation Center. Going back to the 25-year-old GTC depot on First Street SE would cost much less in local tax dollars than building a new Intermodal, the council concluded.

However, Mokhtee Ahmad, the Federal Transit Administration's regional administrator in Kansas City, Mo., has informed city officials via letter that the city can use federal funds from the Intermodal grant to help renovate and modernize the GTC depot into a more safe and efficient facility.

Brad DeBrower, the city's transit manager, said on Monday he was pleased and a little surprised with the turn of events on the transit funding, an outcome which City Manager Jeff Pomeranz called “remote” but worth fighting for a month ago.

“We made the decision to move back to the GTC, and that was done for financial reasons,” Pomeranz said on Monday. “And one of the issues was the need to maximize the functionality of the GTC, and there are costs associated with that. And now the FTA has come back to us and is going to allow us to use the original grant to make the necessary improvements. It's just great news for the city.”

DeBrower said the GTC facility will be the city's transit facility for the foreseeable future, and now the city can design and renovate it so it's “functional and safe.”

DeBrower said that the city likely will not need what he estimates is about $8.2 million left in the original $9 million Intermodal grant for the GTC renovation. What the city doesn't use of the grant funds will return to the federal agency. The city already has used a portion of the grant money to design the Intermodal facility, money which the city will not have to return but which will require the city to pay design costs on its own for the renovated GTC depot, he explained.

Last month, DeBrower presented the council with a preferred renovation option with a price tag of about $2.6 million over and above the $1.5 million the city expects to obtain from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to return the depot to the shape it had been in before the flood.

On Monday, he explained that the $2.6 million figure was an estimate and did not include components of a wider building renovation like making the facility more energy efficient, replacing its 25-year-old heating and air conditioning system, improving and expanding restrooms and adding a modern security-camera system to the facility. The renovation also calls for bringing the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, the plan might include a system to keep the pavement of the outdoor pedestrian loading area warm enough in winter to prevent snow and ice buildup, DeBrower said.

Most importantly, the GTC renovation will change the way buses approach and leave the depot so buses no longer back from parking slots in an unsafe way as had been the case in the past. The new plan calls for buses to pull in almost parallel to the loading area so they leave by going forward rather than having to back up.

The proposed renovation will include extending canopies on the building to protect patrons from the elements as they get on and off buses.

The plan also calls for Fourth Avenue SE and, perhaps, Fifth Avenue SE between First and Third streets SE to be converted to two-way streets to support the arrivals and departures of city buses.

The city secured the federal transit grant a decade ago with a plan to build an Intermodal Transit Facility with a parking ramp that would have been in addition to the existing GTC depot. Initially, the Intermodal and parking ramp was to have been built across First Avenue East from the U.S. Cellular Center and hotel, but the site then shifted to Second Street SE between Sixth and Seventh avenues SE.

Next, the City Council decided it didn't make sense to build the Intermodal so close to the existing GTC depot, and in fact, it made sense to close the GTC facility and incorporate its function into the Intermodal.

The flood of 2008 put plans on hold, and the council then decided to purchase more than two blocks of downtown property, a block of which would be the site for the Intermodal without a parking ramp. However, the $10 million price tag for the more than two blocks of property prompted the council to decide last month to put the bus depot back in the GTC. By then, too, the council learned that it would have had to repay the federal transit agency some $3.5 million if it did not use the GTC as a bus depot because of strings attached to previous federal money used to build the GTC depot.

On Monday, DeBrower said he hoped to have the GTC depot renovated and back in operation by late summer of 2012, and he said this winter should be the fourth and last that bus patrons use temporary modular homes at Second Street and 12th Avenue SE as the city's bus depot.

Meanwhile, the City Council has plans to build new, $10-million-plus parking ramps on both sites - First Avenue SE and Second Street SE - where the Intermodal with parking ramp had once been slated to be built.