City officials said they have been able to decrease the cost of re-lighting the Glover Cary Bridge by $200,000, bringing the total expected cost down from $2.1 million to $1.9 million.
As stated by Assistant City Manager Lelan Hancock, the bridge lighting project is being funded through the City’s downtown TIF (tax increment funds) reimbursement, of which totaled around $500,000, as well as community vision funds that have been set aside for the project.
“When we began this process, we thought it was going to be a million bucks — now it’s almost $2 million,” Mayor Tom Watson said. “But we have money coming from the TIF that qualifies.”
Finance and Support Services Director Angela Hamric said the City has received the TIF reimbursement, and that state consultants were pleased with how close Owensboro’s requested TIF reimbursement amount was to the actual number — especially with it being the City’s first major tax reimbursement of that size.
“That money goes into the [two] TIF funds we set up — one for downtown and for Gateway [Commons] on 54,” Hamric said. “The funds are restricted somewhat based on the parameters we set with the state. It has to be used for the approved public infrastructure that was in the application to the state, and the bridge lights were included in that.”
Hancock said the TIF funds would also be used to make payments on debt service for multiple downtown properties. As for the bridge, all questions the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) had about the logistics of the City’s bridge lighting project were answered and submitted to the state by Hancock and his staff last week.
The questions KYTC had involved the location of conduits, cost reductions and engineering changes that needed to be made, Hancock said.
“We’re waiting on the final permit, so that this point, we have satisfied their questions and we’re waiting on the permit process,” Hancock said.
