[Federal Register: October 10, 2008 (Volume 73, Number 198)]
[Notices]
[Page 60399-60405]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10oc08-170]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks Program, Formerly Alternative
Transportation in Parks and Public Lands Program
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), DOT.
ACTION: Announcement of project selections.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) announces the selection of projects to be funded
under Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 appropriations for the Paul S. Sarbanes
Transit in Parks program (formally the Alternative Transportation in
Parks and Public Lands (ATPPL)) program, authorized by Section 3021 of
the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act--A
Legacy for Users of 2005 (SAFETEA-LU) and codified in 49 U.S.C. 5320.
The Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program funds capital and
planning expenses for alternative transportation systems in parks and
public lands. Federal land management agencies and State, tribal and
local governments acting with the consent of a Federal land management
agency are eligible recipients.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Award recipients who are State, local,
or tribal entities may contact the appropriate FTA Regional
Administrator (See Appendix A) for grant-specific issues. Award
Recipients who are a specific unit of the following Federal land
management agencies should work with the contact listed below at their
headquarters office to coordinate the availability of funds to that
unit.
Bureau of Land Management: Linda Force, Linda_
Force@blm.gov, 202-557-3567.
Fish and Wildlife Service: Nathan Caldwell, nathan_
caldwell@fws.gov, 703-358-2376.
Forest Service: Ellen LaFayette, elafayette@fs.fed.us,
703-605-4509.
National Park Service: Kevin Percival, Kevin_
Percival@nps.gov, 303-969-2429.
Any other Federal land management agency, as specified by 49 U.S.C.
5320(b)(2), should contact Henrika Buchanan-Smith at (202) 366-2053 for
instructions regarding receiving funds. For general information about
the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program, please contact Scott
Faulk, Office of Program Management, Federal Transit Administration, at
(202) 366-2053.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
A total of $25,000,000 was appropriated for FTA's Paul S. Sarbanes
Transit in Parks program in Fiscal Year (FY) 2008, and $807,660 in FY
2007 funds remain available for allocation. Of this amount, $1,250,000
has been reserved for oversight, planning, research, and technical
assistance leaving $24,557,660 available for project awards. A total of
84 applicants requested $55.2 million in funding under the program,
which was more than twice the amount available for projects. FTA,
Department of the
[[Page 60400]]
Interior (DOI), and land management agencies' representatives evaluated
the project proposals based on the criteria defined in 49 U.S.C.
5320(g)(2) and detailed in the Notice of Funding Availability published
on December 13, 2007.
The 52 projects selected for funding in FY 2008 are shown on Table
1 and represent a diverse set of capital and planning projects across
the country, ranging from bus purchases to installation of Intelligent
Transportation Systems (ITS).
Applying for Funds
Recipients who are State or local government entities will be
required to apply for Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program funds
electronically through FTA's electronic grant award and management
system, TEAM. The content of these grant applications must reflect the
approved proposal. (Note: Applications for the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit
in Parks program do not require Department of Labor Certification.)
Upon grant award, payments to grantees will be made by electronic
transfer to the grantee's financial institution through the Electronic
Clearing House Operation (ECHO) system. Staff in FTA's Regional offices
is available to assist applicants.
Recipients who are Federal land management agencies will be
required to enter into an interagency agreement with FTA. FTA will
administer one interagency agreement with each Federal land management
agency receiving funding through the program for all of that agency's
projects. Individual units of Federal land management agencies should
work with the contact at their headquarters office listed above to
coordinate the availability of funds to that unit.
Program Requirements
Section 5320 requires funding recipients to meet certain
requirements. Requirements that reflect existing statutory and
regulatory provisions can be found in the document ``Alternative
Transportation in Parks and Public Lands Program: Requirements for
Recipients'' available at http://www.fta.dot.gov/atppl. These
requirements are incorporated into the grant agreements and inter-
agency agreements used to fund the selected projects.
Pre-Award Authority
Pre-award authority allows an agency that will receive a grant or
interagency agreement to incur certain project costs prior to receipt
of the grant or interagency agreement and retain eligibility of the
costs for subsequent reimbursement after the grant or agreement is
approved. The recipient assumes all risk and is responsible for
ensuring that all conditions are met to retain eligibility, including
compliance with federal requirements such as the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA), SAFETEA-LU planning requirements, and provisions
established in the grant contract or Interagency Agreement. This
automatic pre-award spending authority, when triggered, permits a
grantee to incur costs on an eligible transit capital or planning
project without prejudice to possible future Federal participation in
the cost of the project or projects. Under the authority provided in 49
U.S.C. 5320(h), FTA is extending pre-award authority for FY 2008 ATTPL
projects effective as of October 10, 2008 when the projects were
publicly announced.
The conditions under which pre-award authority may be utilized are
specified below:
a. Pre-award authority is not a legal or implied commitment that
the project(s) will be approved for FTA assistance or that FTA will
obligate Federal funds. Furthermore, it is not a legal or implied
commitment that all items undertaken by the applicant will be eligible
for inclusion in the project(s).
b. All FTA statutory, procedural, and contractual requirements must
be met.
c. No action will be taken by the grantee that prejudices the legal
and administrative findings that the Federal Transit Administrator must
make in order to approve a project.
d. Local funds expended pursuant to this pre-award authority will
be eligible for reimbursement if FTA later makes a grant or interagency
agreement for the project(s). Local funds expended by the grantee prior
to October 10, 2008 will not be eligible for credit toward local match
or reimbursement. Furthermore, the expenditure of local funds on
activities such as land acquisition, demolition, or construction, prior
to the completion of the NEPA process, would compromise FTA's ability
to comply with Federal environmental laws and may render the project
ineligible for FTA funding.
e. When a grant for the project is subsequently awarded, the
Financial Status Report, in TEAM-Web, must indicate the use of pre-
award authority, and the pre-award item in the project information
section of TEAM should be marked ``yes.''
Reporting Requirements
All recipients must submit quarterly reports to FTA containing the
following information:
(1) Narrative description of project(s); and,
(2) discussion of all budget and schedule changes.
The headquarters office for each federal land management agency should
collect a quarterly report for each of the projects delineated in the
interagency agreement and then send these reports (preferably by e-
mail) to Scott Faulk, FTA, scott.faulk@dot.gov; 1200 New Jersey Avenue,
Washington, DC 20590. Examples can be found on the program Web site at
http://www.fta.dot.gov/atppl. State and local governments will send
this information to FTA for projects that are funded through grants to
State and local governments rather than through the interagency
agreement. The quarterly reports are due to FTA on the dates noted
below:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quarter Covering Due date
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1st Quarter Report............. October 1-December January 31
31.
2nd Quarter Report............. January 1-March 31 April 30.
3rd Quarter Report............. April 1-June 30... July 31.
4th Quarter Report............. July 1-September October 31.
31.
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In order to allow FTA to compute aggregate program performance
measures as required by the President's Management Agenda, FTA requests
that all recipients of funding for capital projects under the Paul S.
Sarbanes Transit in Parks program submit the following information
annually:
Annual visitation to the land unit;
Annual number of persons who use the alternative
transportation system (ridership/usage);
An estimate of the number of vehicle trips mitigated based
on alternative transportation system usage and the typical number of
passengers per vehicle;
Cost per passenger; and,
[[Page 60401]]
A note of any special services offered for those systems
with higher costs per passenger but more amenities.
State and local government entities should submit this information
as part of their fourth quarter report through FTA's TEAM grants
management system. Federal land management agencies should also send
this information as part of their fourth quarter report. Examples can
be found on the program Web site at http://www.fta.dot.gov/atppl.
Oversight
Recipients of FY 2008 Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program
funds will be required to certify that they will comply with all
applicable Federal and FTA programmatic requirements. FTA direct
grantees will complete this certification as part of the annual
Certification and Assurances package, and Federal Land Management
Agency recipients will complete the certification by signing the
interagency agreement. This certification is the basis for oversight
reviews conducted by FTA.
The Secretary of Transportation and FTA have elected not to apply
the triennial review requirements of 49 U.S.C. 5307(h)(2) to Paul S.
Sarbanes Transit in Parks program recipients that are other Federal
agencies. Instead, working with the existing oversight systems at the
Federal Land Management Agencies, FTA will perform periodic reviews of
specific projects funded by the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks
program. These reviews will ensure that projects meet the basic
statutory, administrative, and regulatory requirements as stipulated by
this notice and the certification. To the extent possible, these
reviews will be coordinated with other reviews of the project. FTA
direct grantees of Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks program funds
(State, local and tribal government entities) will be subject to all
applicable triennial, State management, civil rights, and other
reviews.
Issued in Washington, DC, this 6th day of October, 2008.
James S. Simpson,
Administrator.
Appendix A--FTA Regional Offices
Region I
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and
Vermont. Richard Doyle, FTA Regional Administrator, Kendall Square, 55
Broadway, Suite 920, Cambridge, MA 02142-1093, (617) 494-2055.
Region II
New Jersey, and New York. Brigid Hynes-Cherin, FTA Regional
Administrator, One Bowling Green, Room 429, New York, NY 10004-1415,
(212) 668-2170.
Region III
Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
and West Virginia. Letitia Thompson, FTA Regional Administrator, 1760
Market Street, Suite 500, Philadelphia, PA 19103-4124, (215) 656-7100.
Region IV
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina,
Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virgin Islands. Yvette
Taylor, FTA Regional Administrator, 230 Peachtree St., NW., Suite 800,
Atlanta, GA 30303, (404) 865-5600.
Region V
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
Marisol Simon, FTA Regional Administrator, 200 West Adams Street, Suite
320, Chicago, IL 60606-5232, (312) 353-2789.
Region VI
Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Robert
Patrick, FTA Regional Administrator, 819 Taylor Street, Room 8A36, Ft.
Worth, TX 76102, (817) 978-0550.
Region VII
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. Mokhtee Ahmad, FTA Regional
Administrator, 901 Locust Street, Suite 404, Kansas City, MO 64106,
(816) 329-3920.
Region VIII
Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
Terry Rosapep, FTA Regional Administrator, 12300 West Dakota, Suite
310, Lakewood, CO 80228-2583, (720) 963-3300.
Region IX
American Samoa, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and the
Northern Mariana Islands. Leslie Rogers, FTA Regional Administrator,
201 Mission Street, Room 1650, San Francisco, CA 94105-1839, (415) 744-
3133.
Region X
Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Richard F. Krochalis, FTA
Regional Administrator, Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Avenue,
Suite 3142, Seattle, WA 98174-1002, (206) 220-7954.
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[FR Doc. E8-24113 Filed 10-9-08; 8:45 am]
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