Grant money for CATS bus shelters in jeopardy

Now that CATS has money to grow—thanks to the 10-year, 10.6-mill dedicated property tax approved by voters in Baton Rouge and Baker last year—a priority for the public transit agency is to build new bus shelters along revamped routes. However, $237,124 in federal grant money for shelters, which has been sitting safely in the bank, may be lost in the coming weeks if CATS doesn’t soon put out a request for proposals to manufacturers, says CATS General Manager Carol Cranshaw. When CATS board member Jared Loftus noted during a regular meeting on Tuesday that the grant money could soon expire, Cranshaw said the Federal Transit Administration is waiting for at least an update on RFPs. On Wednesday, Cranshaw said the FTA wants to see the RFPs go out before the end of March, or it will take back the grant funds. “Then Congress wants them redistributed,” Cranshaw says. In the meantime, a plan for the bus shelters won’t be discussed publicly anytime soon, since a committee meeting scheduled for Friday morning—at which CATS CEO Brian Marshall was expected to present his long-awaited expansion plan—was pushed back on Wednesday by two weeks, to March 8. Nevertheless, Marshall says he’s “confident” the grant money will remain in place. —Adam Pearson