By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The city of Florence is on the verge of creating a TID, or Transportation Improvement District.
This isn’t a new idea, but the concept, a district within a city, can be unique because each city is different, in topography, in weather, in what makes them famous.
Former State Representative Sal Santoro and Wade Williams from the Montrose Group gave a presentation on the formation of a TID a few weeks ago.
“This is a way, local control, local funding, along with the state to get your projects built,” Santoro said at the time. “This is just good public policy, and you are going to be in control. It’s just simple.”
Santoro reminded people that a six-year plan translates into a 60-year plan for the state, and proposed that a TID would get a project completed much sooner, and the control details would stay local.
“We have one more reading for the ordinance,” said Florence Public Works Director Eric Hall. “Once the ordinance passes, then we need to take steps to establish a board for the TID. We will look for people who specialize in certain areas, like engineering, economic development, financial, planning, or community and civic leaders.”
Once the board is established, then the group will start to try and locate money, whether it is federal or state funds, or a possibility of public/private funds to help with projects, which are not cheap.
“We had a traffic study done for the whole city,” explained Hall. “We want to assess the city, as far as traffic congestion, and determine if the school corridors are efficient. There are a lot of recommendations as to driving priorities.”
At the meeting, a problem area that was brought up was the Truck stop at Route 18 that tends to back up traffic, not only on 18 but also for traffic exiting the expressway, when trucks want to get into that area. Hall said there is a separate study being done on I-275 that is evaluating 18 and the truck stop.
The plan is for Hall to make a request at the budget retreat which happens in a few months at the city for a leadership position to oversee the board and make sure the projects that are adopted are finished in a timely manner. He is convinced that this is the key to a successful TID.
Hall is excited about this endeavor and has an idea of what he wants the first project to be.
“My top priority is to connect Pleasant Valley to Mall road,” he said. “The project is currently in the 6-year plan, and I want to work with KYTC (Kentucky Transportation Cabinet) and break the project into phases. The first phase would be Hopeful Church road to Mall Road, and then the project will go back and connect Hopeful Church road to Pleasant Valley.”
Hall said the connection would relieve traffic pressures by giving motorists another option of where to go to access the interstate.
“It is the same concept as what they did on Aero Parkway,” Hall explained. “We also have a project with managing the traffic signals, and we are hoping all of this will help the increasing traffic congestion.”
The city is about a year behind the TID set up in Boone County. Hall is a non-voting member on the Boone County TID board, and he can stay on that board even though Florence is setting up their own board.
Boone County Fiscal Court just approved the first project of the Transportation Improvement District, and it will be putting turn lanes in on Walt Ryan Way in Verona, which is the site of the new intermediate branch of the Walton Verona school district.
That project is already funded, but Chair Larry Brown said the way the TID works is that the work is done and paid for up front, and then the district will be reimbursed. The court has already given the TID $50,000, of which they still have $49.210.70. However that project is estimated to cost about $1.2 million, so the TID will have to manage money carefully.
The way Brown explained things, TID’s are wonderfully helpful, but getting them set up and running is the hard part. He pointed to TID’s in Cincinnati, and said they are working well.
“TID’s require local skin in the game,” Brown said.
Hall agreed, saying that if he can get the lead position approved at the budget retreat, he thinks the board can be accomplished in about six months from July, and be ready to tackle projects that will improve traffic flow within the city of Florence.