TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Leaders are making progress toward the "Monroe Makeover" in Tallahassee. In an update following Thursday night's Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency meeting that ran late into the night, Leon County Commissioner, Rick Minor, sent this update on the project. You can watch that portion of the meeting in the video above.
"It wasn't pretty, but we got what we needed. At last night's Blueprint meeting, the North Monroe project was scheduled for discussion, though it was the last item on the agenda. By 10:30 p.m. last night -- right before we were scheduled to discuss North Monroe -- three Blueprint Directors had left the meeting, causing us to lose quorum and prevent the conduct of any further business. However, the sentiment in the room was overwhelmingly positive for the project. Our staff will send a letter to the CRTPA, identifying the funds for the match, and then Blueprint Directors will be able to ratify this at our next meeting on May 16th."
Work on the North Monroe Street corridor in Tallahassee is an issue ABC 27 is been following for months. In February, Northwest Tallahassee Neighborhood Reporter, Maya Sargent, highlighted the priorities for the project.
WATCH MAYA'S STORY BELOW:
A 2023 Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency study showed traffic crashes are just one of the issues along the North Monroe corridor.
In his letter Friday, Minor added, "I want to thank you for your work on this... watching 1,402 people add their names to the petition and reading the letters of support has been one of the greatest highlights of my time as your District 3 Commissioner. And it shows that we all can make a difference!"
To be clear, Minor explained, "the grant application will move forward and will be submitted, but we'll still need to await the results from the U.S. Department of Transportation on whether the application will be successful. We'll submit the application in May, and by December or January we should learn if we're going to receive the $17M in federal funds for North Monroe."
