P14AP00202 MISS City of Ramsey NOI - Notice of Intent to Award 09192014.doc

ABSTRACT

Public Law 100-696; 704(a) 16 USC section 460 zz 5(a) – Grants: Under approval of the plan under section 460zz02 of this title, the Secretary is authorized to make grants to the State of Minnesota, or its political subdivisions, to cover not more than 50 percent of the cost of acquisition and development within the Area of lands and waters or interests therein in a manner consistent with the purposes of this part.

This Funding Announcement is not a request for applications.

This announcement is to provide public notice of the intention of National Park Service (NPS) to fund the following project activities without competition.

Note: The use of special characters in the fields below will prevent your announcement from posting to Grants.gov. Special characters that cannot be used include: ampersand, apostrophes, dashes, percent/pound-sign, and quotation marks, among others (example: &, -, *, %, /, #).

OVERVIEW: The objective of this agreement is to develop and construct the Mississippi Skyway (Skyway) across Highway 10 in MISS to enable bicyclists and pedestrian to connect from Metro Transit’s Northstar Commuter Rail and Bus Station in Ramsey to the Mississippi River Trail (MRT) in Mississippi West Regional Park.

STATEMENT OF JOINT OBJECTIVES/PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN: The National Park Service and City of Ramsey are working together to complete an alternative transportation plan and connections to the Mississippi River without a car. This project will provide visitors to MISS with a connection to the river, Mississippi River Trail, and local and regional amenities along the river in the northern end of the park.

RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT: Recipient will oversee project implementation and secure additional funds.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE INVOLVEMENT: National Park Service staff will ensure project’s consistency with MISS resource protection goals, all federal requirements, and participate in joint promotion of the project.

NPS did not solicit full and open competition for this award based the following criteria: The applicant is the land manager overseeing the entire project to build the Mississippi River Skyway Bridge, which is part of a much larger project than what is funded through this award. There is no other entity that has the authority to oversee this project or has the technical and administrative expertise to implement the project. All projects in MISS are implemented through partnership efforts and approval of the local authority, which is the applicant in this case. There is no other choice than to work with the City of Ramsey, the property owner, in MISS, on this project.

PAGE