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Just over $6 million in federal grant funding made available to SMART Transit and the Minnesota Department of Transportation is expected to help the southeastern Minnesota transit company take the next steps forward in two long-awaited projects at two of its locations.

Announced on July 9 by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the money granted is part of the fiscal year 24 Bus and Low- and No-Emission Grant Awards and will go toward construction of two facility projects here in Austin and in Waseca.

“Obviously we’re super excited,” said Kirk Kuchera, SMART manager. “This is something that’s been in development for quite a while.”

SMART began looking at the two projects about five years ago. Originally part of a three-site project involving Owatonna, the plans now involve just Austin and Waseca after Owatonna’s SMART site opened its new facility in the fall of 2022. 

Originally, the projects in Austin and Waseca were budgeted to cost just shy of $5 million and $2.9 million respectively, and included grant funding from the state. However, with this federal funding, the state will now be able allocate more of those funds to the local share of the projects. 

“We felt it would not only benefit SMART to help reduce local share, it would also help the state use state dollars assigned to our projects by bringing in federal dollars in to lower the state share as well,” Kuchera said.

Austin’s project will fill a variety of needs brought about by the age of the building, which SMART owns.

When completed, Kuchera said it would make better use of designated office areas as well as an area for dispatch and open up the possibility of expanding the fleet in the future.

“Having a new facility in Austin is not only going to allow us to shore up some of the inefficiency we have, but also to really plan for the future and look at what else is needed with public transit moving forward,” he said.

In Waseca, the new facility will allow the site to move away from a rented location, similar to Owatonna. Once completed, it will allow SMART to pull all buses inside a garage which will protect the buses from vandalism and theft, something it has already experienced with catalytic converter theft.

While there are no finalized plans at this time, Kuchera said that he hopes to get the ball rolling at the Austin site in 2025 with another hope to start the Waseca project sometime in 2026, though with additional steps needed to be taken due to the federal grant dollars, those timelines aren’t set in stone.

Both of the projects were pushed back some because of the need for the Owatonna project.

Once both are finished, Kuchera said he further hopes that these projects will provide a gateway to even more transit opportunities in the future.

“Those things might include additional buses and vans to serve communities,” Kuchera said. “It’s been a personal goal I’ve voiced to not only our staff and team, but also the state, of having more availability into the more rural parts of our communities.”

In total, 117 projects will receive funding from the FTA, spanning 47 states with a total of $1.5  billion, all to help transit agencies with the purchase of zero or low emission buses,  as well as to improve bus facilities.

Earlier this year, SMART, owned and operated Cedar Valley Services, along with  MNDOT, applied for the FTA Low- and No- Emission Bus and Bus Facilities Grant  opportunity. 

Receiving this award will not only be a huge help to local transit in  southeastern Minnesota, but throughout the state, as this will help free up state money to be used for other transit related projects. 

SMART serves a four-county area including Freeborn, Mower, Steele and Waseca.