"If it isn't broken, don't be trying to fix it," is the Metropolitan Planning Organization's recommendation regarding proposed changes to the state's Transportation Enhancement grant application.

Concerns from rural communities are prompting a review of the application procedure for Transportation Enhancement grants, the North Dakota Department of Transportation's Ben Kubishchta told the MPO Policy Board earlier this week. These grants are used for projects that are adjacent roads and highways such as trails and historic markers.

Each year about $500,000 is made available for rural projects which are usually applied for by counties, while about $1 million is available for urban projects. Rural projects can receive a maximum of $200,000 and urban projects $300,000. Local projects receiving grants provide a 20 percent match.

The program has been in place for about 15 years. The funds are distributed through a 10-member DOT director's task force. The group has five state officials and five local officials.

"When people from Watford City or Carrington drive into Bismarck, they don't see rural housing, they see the city of Bismarck extending out four miles from its corporate limits," Kubishchta explained.

"Some projects in particular, the Morton County application for a trail along Highway 1806 north of Mandan …, well they see urban housing just outside of town and don't feel that it's right that type of project is competing against one in Watford City, Mohall or Ashley."

Kubishchta has been asked to come up with some proposals for possibly changing how applications from areas adjacent to the state's 13 major cities are done. He has come up with four alternatives which he shared with the MPO.

3 No changes, keep things the way they are.

3 Based on the Extraterritorial Area of cities. Any area outside an ETA could apply for a rural grant. The problem being, that counties will still be responsible for local match for those projects outside corporate limits but within the ETA.

3 Based on population per square mile. Rural areas would be those under 300 households per section or 900 people per square mile.

3 Based on the size of residential lots. Those areas with less than two acres per lot are more urban in feel and nature.

The issue was first brought to the MPO's Technical Advisory Committee, according to Kubishchta. This group felt alternatives C and D will be hard to administer.

According to MPO director Steve Saunders, the advisory group's preference is alternative A, do nothing.

"They more or less feel if it's not broke don't fix it," Saunders said. "Basing it on corporate limits is the most simple. By using the ETA it becomes complex."

Burleigh County commissioner Doug Schonert suggested some sort of point system. Those projects in a more rural setting would have a weighted leverage when approving applications for rural projects.

Kubishchta said the application really hasn't been a problem and it may be more of a perceived problem than what is actually occurring. In 15 years, only four projects near larger towns have been awarded rural grants. Morton has received two near Mandan, Burleigh one near Bismarck and Cass one near Fargo.

"Rural funds are going to smaller communities and urban funds to the larger cities," Kubishchta said.

The state's two other MPOs also have been informed about the concerns and have been asked to make recommendations on what course to follow. Kubishchta will put together a report and recommendations to be reviewed by NDDOT director Francis Ziegler.

"I like the words of the technical advisory committee," said Bismarck Mayor John Waford. "'If it's not broken don't fix it. We've been told there really is no record of discrimination in awarding of the Transportation Enhancement grants. Projects should be judged by their merit, not geography. Changing the applications to be based more on geography than merits, that's a place I don't think I would go."

The rest of the MPO policy board agreed with Warford and unanimously passed a motion to recommend no changes to the current process.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)