Buffalo, N.Y.-based group trying to connect roads from Canada to Florida
Kevin Spradlin Cumberland Times-News
— CUMBERLAND — The head of a local agency garnered support from a key stakeholder in the efforts to move along the expansion of U.S. routes 219 and 220.
Colleen Peterson, executive director of The Greater Cumberland Committee, traveled Friday with officials representing Somerset County, Pa., to Ridgway, about 85 miles north of Altoona. Peterson made the case for the north-south thoroughfares to Continental 1, formerly the Pennsylvania 219 Association that has lobbied for the project since the 1960s.
The trip, made with Somerset County Commission Chair John Vatavuk and Ron Aldom, executive director of the Somerset County Chamber of Commerce, was an apparent success.
Peterson made her presentation during Continental 1’s regular board meeting. She said forming a working relationship between the two entities — and supporting one another — simply makes sense.
“It just seemed we could help each other,” Peterson said of the transportation project, which she labeled an economic development project that could put thousands to work. “We can leverage each other’s resources.”
Peterson said Continental 1’s support for the local agency’s effort was unanimous, “which is great. I think they understand they need to do more to reaching out to organizations like ours. I think we did very well.”
Vatavuk agreed, and seconded a goal was to have Somerset and Cambria counties included in Continental 1’s transportation corridor.
“There wasn’t one objection to changing the route,” Vatavuk said. “That’s the first change they made to the route in the past 10 years. This was kind of a monumental effort.”
Vatavuk said Somerset County’s “main focus” is linking U.S. Route 219 North to Interstate 68 in Maryland.
While not entirely one-sided, the budding TGCC and its dedicated but recent effort to lobby for the 219 project is dwarfed by Continental 1. The Buffalo, N.Y.-based group has a larger “big picture” view – members envision a four-lane highway from Toronto, Canada to Miami, Fla. — and, having been around longer, have a larger pool of funds dedicated to advocate for the expansion.
Locally, The Greater Cumberland Committee already appears to have the support of the congressional delegations from Maryland and West Virginia. Pennsylvania lawmakers, however, have voted not to extend the use of toll credits to offset the required state match of 20 percent in order to access the federal government’s 80 percent share.
Toll credits include revenue from toll receipts, concession sales, right of way leases or interest and borrowed funds supported by the revenue stream. The federal transportation bill expired in 2009 but has been extended to the end of 2010. Vatavuk said the earliest lawmakers are expected to propose a new bill is spring 2011.
Clearly, Peterson said, there’s a connection between the two entities.
“I think the committee saw the synergy,” Peterson said. “I think we made a very good case statement.”
Peterson said the next steps include ensuring federal lawmakers from the surrounding states continue to support the project and instructing staff to put the expansion on each state’s consolidated transportation program, a long-term plan by each jurisdiction that identifies and prioritizes transportation projects.
That’s a key step, Peterson said, because even if the federal government identifies funding for the next phases, each state has final say on where that money is directed.
“The states still have to commit to prioritize the projects,” she said. “We have to constantly feed (lawmakers) and tell them where we are.”
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