Bloomington is one of several communities slated to receive money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Bloomington Public Transportation will receive about $1.7 million from the stimulus package. That’s a dollar amount that Katie Moreau, spokesperson for State Rep. Barron Hill (D-9th) said tops other communities of similar size.
“Bloomington did get one of the largest chunks [of money] for [its] population size,” Moreau said. “We know a lot of folks do rely on public transportation there to get around.”
Moreau said Bloomington officials will use the government dollars to build a downtown passenger transit facility, a plan announced late last year.
“Lew May, general manager of Bloomington Public Transportation Corporation, said that [the money] is coming at a great time because [the city is] in the final design stages of [its] new downtown passenger transit facilities,” Moreau said. “And the money will allow [BPTC] to construct a sustainable, green facility.”
The federal government released the money to the state last week, and Moreau said local agencies will receive it shortly. No date has been set for the ground-breaking of the new facility.
