Houston Fire Museum's $2 million grant is not a certainty
KUHF-88.7 posted this bit of news today:
The Houston Fire Museum is using a $2 million grant from the Texas Department of Transportation to move forward with plans to expand the museum and turn it into a big midtown area educational complex.
[snip]
The Fire Museum Expansion Project has launched a drive to raise $20 million for the new building. Ponte says $2 million from the Transportation Department will be a big help because it gives their project credibility with other potential donors.
Ponte says they hope to break ground for the new and bigger Houston Fire Museum on Main Street in Midtown late this year or early next year.
Well! That's interesting. Why in the world would TxDOT be giving money to the Houston Fire Museum? And $2 million is a sizable chunk of change.
I called TxDOT and spoke with Janelle Gbur, who was very helpful. After quite a bit of digging, she finally had the background on the grant:
Back in the regular session, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that had a rider attached to it. The rider directed (key word) TxDOT to give $2 million to the Houston Fire Museum out of the Transportation Enhancement funds. (The rider directed TxDOT to provide funding for several other projects as well, including the Battleship Texas and the Tejano Monument.)
I asked if the Legislature could tell TxDOT how to distribute federal money. She said that was her question, too, and so she called the Federal Highway Adminstration to find out.
She was told that in theory, yes, the Texas Legislature could ask TxDOT to provide money out of Enhancement funds, but any project using Enhancement funds must be transportation-related. Meaning, the project would have to convince the feds that it meets the requirements of the Transportation Enhancement program. But, and here's the key, right now there is no money in the Transportation Enhancement program because the national transportation bill has been stalled for two years!
So first, Congress has to pass the transportation bill. When that happens, THEN the FHA will look at the Houston Fire Museum's proposal to decide if they even qualify for Transportation Enhancement funds.
It is not a done deal, and in fact, it is unclear whether or not the museum would qualify for the money, according to Janelle Gbur. She said this was a premature announcement.
One more point: normally when TxDOT gets Transportation Enhancement funds, it sets up a competitive bidding process with projects from all over the state vying for funding. When the Legislature directs TxDOT to give money to the Houston Fire Museum, it means there is that much less money available for other potentially worthy projects all over the state.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/27/05 06:11 PM | Print |
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