Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Dec. 19, 2024 – The City of Jonesboro on Wednesday held a public meeting to provide information as it seeks $5 million in RAISE Planning Grant Funding.

Representatives for both the City of Jonesboro and the City of Paragould were present, including Grants and Community Development Director for the City of Jonesboro Jeremy Biggs, Grants Project Coordinator and Grants Writer for the City of Jonesboro Mark Coomes, and Grant Administrator for the City of Paragould Tara Sexton. The meeting was held on the second floor of the Cadence Bank in Jonesboro.

The goal of the meeting was to give residents a chance to learn about the RAISE (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) Grant 2025 application, project goals, and how this federal funding can play a role in providing safe and efficient infrastructure.

RAISE is a discretionary grant program for investments in surface transportation infrastructure that will have a significant local or regional impact. RAISE Grant Funds were authorized under the Local and Regional Assistance Program in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).

The meeting comes after the Jonesboro City Council passed a resolution on Tuesday allowing Jonesboro to submit a planning grant application in conjunction with the City of Paragould and the City of Brookland to formulate a partnership, officially known as the Red Wolf Ridgeway Partners.

This will allow the city to request up to $5 million for design, environmental studies, right-of-way acquisition plans, utility relocation plans, traffic studies, and a cost-benefit analysis for the future Red Wolf Ridgeway, which will traverse through all three partner cities.

“We’re one of the poorest regions of the entire United States right here in the Delta of Arkansas,” Biggs said. “[The U.S. Department of Transporation] sees where everybody’s moving out of the Delta into Jonesboro, Brookland, Paragould, in this region right here. They’re fleeing small towns across the Delta.”

Some highlights of the Red Wolf Ridgeway Project include:

  • 27 miles of new, all-accessible pedestrian infrastructure focused on safety and regional connectivity
  • Multi-use pathways
  • Shared-use roadways
  • Complete Streets approach to design focused on all modes of surface transportation
  • Intersection design improvements
  • Stormwater mitigation focused on improving flow rate and eliminating flooding concerns in historically flood-prone neighborhoods
  • Final construction design, environmental analysis, traffic analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cultural resources studies, right-of-way acquisition plans, utility relocation plans, and complete streets policy

Biggs said it’s always important to hear what’s a priority to each individual that lives in the communities that are partnering for this grant, adding that they will have multiple meetings in each city as the design process goes along.

The City previously submitted a construction grant to RAISE in 2024, which was declined. Even though the application met seven of the eight merit criteria for a project to advance to the funding round, Biggs said the project was struck down when it reached Washington D.C. He added that the U.S. Department of Transporation told the City the project was needed in Northeast Arkansas.

“They understood the project and the need, but the big thing was that it’s not ready. Our project readiness was 5% to 10%. We didn’t have right of way acquisition plans, we didn’t have utility relocation plans, we didn’t have the design done. So, they told us if you would have applied for a planning and design grant, more than likely you would have been awarded in that grant,” Biggs said. “So, they recommended we apply for the planning and design grant. That’s why we’ve shifted to go this route and get all that done and everything lined out. We’ll have a plan ready and projects ready to go in all three cities.”

The project has an estimated 24-month timeline, which includes the application deadline in January 2025, the grant being awarded by June 2025, more public engagement followed by beginning of the design process in the fall 2025, completing the analysis by fall 2026, and completing the design by spring 2027.

“We want to get all that stuff done over the next few years so that way we can go to construction,” Biggs said, noting that the cities have five years to complete the planning process if needed.

He added that when the project is fully designed, they plan to apply for the construction grant again in 2028 if the funding is still available, after which they would have 10 years to complete the construction side of the project. It will be dependent on what money is available from the federal level at that time.

In addition, Paragould residents met at the Paragould City Hall on Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Brookland residents will meet to discuss the grant on Jan. 14 at Brookland City Hall.