By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The Kenton County Mayors’ hears from two speakers Saturday, one from OKI, the Regional Council of Governments, which is the metropolitan planning organization that oversees regional transportation, planning and environmental needs in the three-state area. The other was from Kenton County Public Works, on the same topic.
Bob Koehler, Deputy Executive Director of OKI, explained that the OKI organization has been federally mandated since 1964, and they are responsible for 196 jurisdictions in three states – Butler, Hamilton, Clermont and Warren counties in Ohio, Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties in Kentucky, and Dearborn county in Indiana.
“We approve half a billion dollars in projects every year,” Koehler said. “We invest $50 million in projects every year.”
There is a board that consists of 118 members, with two-thirds of them elected officials, and they operate by consensus.
Some of the Metropolitan Planning activities include long range transportation plans, short range programs, special multimodal studies, technical assistance, data development and dissemination, travel modeling and forecasting, and strategic regional policy planning.
Some of the Council of Government activities are regional planning, water quality planning, and green space planning.
“This year we have approximately $80 million in projects, in roads, transit, bike, pedestrian, and freight,” said Koehler. “There is a local match of 20 percent.”
Koehler went on to say that there are many eligible applicants for the projects that OKI sponsors: such as area development districts, cities, counties, towns, transit authorities, port authorities, transportation improvement districts and any other units of government eligible to sign contracts with KYTC or ODOT.
After defining the organization and what it does, Koehler talked about a brand new program they want to tell the cities about.
“We’re looking for some simple projects, things that are basically a skim coat, anything less than $800,000,” Koehler said. “We have $4 million in Kentucky to apply to these projects but we are limiting each community or applicant to one application. We are looking for these to be on a single roadway, adding up to $800,000. We want a single roadway because that’s how we will evaluate the usage of the money for the project. Also we anticipate a lot of competition for the money for these projects. These are projects we think can be easily delivered.”
He said they are not looking for projects that require acquiring right of way, or a lot of engineering. Typically, he said, they usually have an advisor to help evaluate the projects.
Koehler answered a few questions, and then told them how he could be reached, and advised them to visit OKI.org and check it all out.
The next speaker, Brandon Seiter, came from the Kenton County Public Works, but in the past he worked for KYTC for many years, and his job at Kenton County is Capital Improvement Program manager.
“Part of the reason I was brought on at Kenton County is to look for opportunities for the county to partner with the cities to try and maximize the impact of projects and the money and funding to go after, and I thought that Bob’s and OKI’s new program is a great opportunity for that,” he explained. “He mentioned they are looking for one route for resurfacing up to $800,000, I know they could get more expensive, but $800,000 can cover a lot of roadway. There are a lot of opportunities in Kenton County specifically where we have a roadway that continues from one jurisdiction to another, so there might be some really good opportunities to partner and go after some of that money to help not just one individual city but multiple cities.”
He said he has a lot of experience that he can use to help the cities form a collaboration, so they can get a little more bang for the buck.
“We can offer you guys another option to help maximize and get things across the finish line,” he said.
He related some of the things that the county has recently completed, and said he knows the cities have engineers and he isn’t suggesting taking their place, but instead would like to work together on projects. He reminded the cities that some of them are working with the county now to find a pavement evaluation consultant who will report which roads that the cities need to prioritize as far as repair.
He said at the current time they are working with the cities of Covington and Taylor Mill on the Wolf Road project, and the Amsterdam sidewalk project, with Villa Hills and Crescent Springs which has had the design finalized. He mentioned the Amsterdam Road rehab project that they are working on with Park Hills. He said some of those projects were OKI funded projects to begin with.
He asked the mayors to consider collaboration with him to search out projects that will qualify for the OKI program, and gave his contact information.
Park Hills Mayor Kathy Zembrodt spoke up.
“I just want to say that it has been really really good working with you,” she stated. “It is very helpful.”