Published: March 18, 2008 10:31 pm         

Toll ‘credits’ sought by Beckley for BIG project

If OK’d by state, funds would come from feds, not drivers, to meet required local match

So far, everything is in place for Beckley’s $24 million downtown revitalization project — except for $2.7 million in local funds.

Mayor Emmett Pugh says city officials are working to obtain those funds from the state Department of Transportation. These funds, the DOT says, are credits given to the DOT by the federal government for the state forking over its own cash on at least one major West Virginia Turnpike project.

While the mayor is confident the city will get these funds, he admits there are no guarantees.

City officials are in the planning stages for the Beckley Intermodal Gateway. BIG is billed as economic and transportation revitalization project geared toward downtown Beckley, and its estimated cost is $24 million. It has been made possible through an earmarked $20 million from the Federal Transit Authority, and the city must provide 20 percent in matching funds.

The project’s plan calls for construction of a new parking facility, small cultural center, new city hall and police department, walking trails and gardens to be constructed in an approximate 5-acre area stretching between Neville Street, Leslie C. Gates Place, Prince Street and Robert C. Byrd Drive.

Pugh has emphasized, however, that this is only a working plan the city used to attract the federal money.

During last week’s Beckley Common Council meeting, David Hafley, vice president/area manager for the Lexington, Ky.-based Parsons Brinckerhoff engineering firm and project manager for BIG, said the city will be allowed to use the BIG site’s $2.2 million value as part of the local match. The city will still need to obtain another $2.7 million in local funds.

The city wants to use “toll revenue credits” governed by the state DOT to get the remainder of the local match, Hafley said. While Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox is receptive, he has not given the city a green light just yet.

- - -

Jim Sothen, deputy state highway engineer of development, explained what the toll revenue credits are — and are not. The credits are given by the federal government when the state uses its own funds on “major capital improvements” for a federal toll road. They can be used to provide the local match for federal projects. Sothen likened them to a debit card.

He noted toll revenue credits are not the money motorists pay to travel the turnpike. That money, he said, goes toward turnpike maintenance. The “toll” in “toll revenue credits” only comes from a toll road being involved.

“There is no toll money involved whatsoever,” Sothen said.

The original amount of the state’s toll revenue credits was more than $100 million, Sothen said. While he did not know the exact amount of toll credits left, he said a “large portion” remains available.

Because the toll revenue credits do not come from the Parkways Authority — or from the state, actually — Pugh emphasized the city is not trying to follow in state lawmakers’ recent footsteps. Earlier this month, Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth, R-Mercer, wanted the authority to provide $100,000 annually for a horse park in Mercer County. The outlay was added to a bill extending the authority’s annual $250,000 payment to the Hatfield-McCoy Trails.

“That is a totally different animal (from) what was wanted for the horse park and the Hatfield-McCoy Trails,” Pugh said. “That was actual cash from the state budget. There is no comparison.”

Toll revenue credits were used to fund Huntington’s $35 million Pullman Square project, Pugh noted, and he believes that set a precedent. However, the city must have the state DOT’s approval. The state may not give the final OK until existing local funds — needed to keep drawing down federal dollars for BIG — are depleted.

Pugh estimated it will be three to four years before the toll revenue credit funds are needed.

While he believes the state will give the city what it needs, Pugh admitted there is a risk the state would refuse to write the city a $2.7 million check, and FTA grant funds would go back to the federal government.

“There’s always a risk,” he said.

— E-mail: apridemore@register-herald.com