At its short April 16 meeting, Dayton city council voted to authorize Mayor Ben Baker to enter into an interlocal agreement with other river cities, the Campbell County Fiscal Court and Southbank Partners to provide matching funds for a federal RAISE grant.
RAISE stands for the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Transportation Discretionary Grant program. The program’s goal is to invest money in road, rail, transit and port projects.
The grant will help fund parts of the Riverfront Commons project involving Northern Kentucky cities along the Ohio River — Bellevue, Bromley, Covington, Dayton, Ludlow, Newport and Silver Grove. The aim is to develop a 20-mile continuous multi-use corridor from Devou Park in Covington to Pendery Park near Silver Grove.
The grant will help fund design and engineering work for the remaining portions of the Riverfront Commons project trail system and will help extend it for another eight miles along Kentucky 8 from Dayton to Pendery Park in Campbell County, said City Administrator Jay Fossett.
“We received $3.7 million from the US Department Transportation to basically finish design on the gaps that are in the Riverfront Commons project and then also to design a plan for the next eight miles, from Dayton to Fort Thomas, from Silver Grove to Pendery Park,” Fossett said. “This is just for design…We will probably have to do it in phases if we want to continue this trail.”
The grant is a matching grant, and participants committed to a 20% match. Fossett noted that Dayton’s share is about $80,000, and that was accounted for in the current city budget.
City council voted to authorize the mayor to enter into the interlocal agreement. See the Riverfront Commons website for more on the project including an interactive map showing completed and planned sections.