HomeMy WebLinkAboutMontana Department of Commerce (5)Department of Commerce
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIVISION
P.t7. Box 200523 * Helena, Montana 59620-0523
Phone:406~41-2770 * Fax:406-841-2771
July 21, 2008
Ms. Crystal Bennett
City of Laurel
115 N Broadway Ste 500
Billings MT 59101
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Dear Ms.Bennett:
Enclosed is a draft technical review report prepared by the Community Development
Division engineers regarding your Treasure State Endowment Program (TSEP) application
and your Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) applicatian (if
applicable), which includes your preliminary engineering report (PER). The technical
review report expresses our stafF engineer's understanding of the project and professional
opinion in reference to the criteria used to scare TSEP statutory priorities #1 (Health and
Safety Threat) and #3 (Technical Design), and the equivalent CDBG criteria #2 and #3.
After taking into account any comments you may have, the report will be revised if
applicable and then used as the basis far scoring these statutory priorities when the
TSEP/CDBG technical review ranking team meets.
We have sent this draft report for your engineer to review. This is your opportunity to point
out something that our staff engineer may have missed in the PER, or to correct
something that we may have misunderstood about the project. However, you are not
allowed to introduce any new information that was not previously submitted in the PER or
application. If you have any corrections to the draft technical review report, you must,
specifically reference the location in the PER or application where the information can be
found. In particular, review the Proposed Solution (under item 1 of Priority 1) to ensure
that this is what you intend to do in your proposed project, since you will be expected to
complete that scope of work if you are awarded a TSEP grant. Comments an the draft
engineering review report must be received by us no later than August 1St to be included in
our application review process. Your engineer's unavailability to review the draft report will
not be grounds for an extension of time.
The TSEP/CDBG technical review ranking team will meet as a group to score TSEP
statutory priorities #1 and #3 and CDBG criteria #2 and #3. On September 8t" we will
meet to score bridge applications. On September 9t" through 12t", we will meet to score
all other types of applications, including those that were submitted to both the TSEP and
CDBG programs. These scoring .meetings are open to public observation. However,
absolutely no comments by the public will be permitted during the project discussion and
scoring process, in order to ensure fairness to all applicants. We have scheduled the
meeting at the Montana Department of Commerce, basement conference room B18,
located at 301 South Park Avenue, at the south end of Last Chance Gulch. We will
probably start around 8:00 a.m.
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In addition, the TSEP rankin~team will meet to score TSEP statutory priorities #4 through
#7 starting on September 15 and continue through September 19t", as needed. This
process is also open to public observation, and again, no comments by the public will be
permitted during the scoring process. The ranking team will be meeting in conference
room B18. CDBG applicants will be notified when the date has been set for review of
CDBG criteria #1, and #4 through #7.
We encourage you to attend any of these scaring meetings in order to gain a better
understanding of how the Department scores the TSEP and CDBG applications. In
particular, we encourage you, and especially your project engineer, to observe the scoring
of the technical review regarding your application.
You can a-mail your comments to Richard Knatterud at rknatterudCa7_mt.gov, or Kate Miller
-at kmiller mt. ov, or mail a computer disk with the information. If you have any
questions, please call me at 841-2785.
Sincerely,
Jim comb, Program Manager.
Treasure State Endowment Program
Enclosure: DRAFT Technical Review Report
cc w/out enclosure: Mayor Kenneth ~Ison
cc w/enclosure: Patrick Murtagh, Great West Engineering