GREEN RIVER — The Green River City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to withdraw from a $500,000 grant program intended for the reconstruction of the Riverside Park pathway. The city applied for the funding through the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant from the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) in 2022.

“We have applied for a transportation grant every year from WYDOT for the last several years. And in 2022, we were successful in receiving a grant for the reconstruction of the Riverside Park pathway,” Public Works Director Mark Westenskow told the council.

Westenskow said that due to post-COVID funding cycles, there were major price fluctuations for projects. The city was set to receive $400,000 from the grant, with a $100,000 city match requirement under an 80/20 split.

Since then, WYDOT revised its program, moving to a 90/10 split and increasing the maximum possible funding amount to $1 million, Westenskow said.

“We recently met with WYDOT staff to talk about our other TAP grant for Monroe School that we just got, and they asked us how the project was going,” Westenskow said. “We told them we have drawings done, been through environmental processes, we put it out to bid, and it came back about double our initial estimate.”

According to Westenskow, Green River was not alone in facing these challenges. “Pretty much every community that got funded in that cycle is in the same boat,” he said.

“They responded, ‘Why don’t you go along with everyone else from that funding cycle?’” Westenskow explained. “WYDOT has recommended that they return that grant from that funding cycle and reapply under the current funding cycle under the current rules, which would allow us to apply for twice as much money with the same match that we have, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

With the City Council’s unanimous vote to terminate the grant, Green River will now have the opportunity to reapply for $900,000 in funding with the same $100,000 match.