A $1 million federal appropriation puts the city in line to getadditional funds to build an intermodal transportation facility inthe central part of the city, Mayor Bill Godbold said Tuesday.

A $1 million federal appropriation puts the city in line to getadditional funds to build an intermodal transportation facility inthe central part of the city, Mayor Bill Godbold said Tuesday.

The federal money was included in a federal transportationfunding bill announced last week by Sen. Thad Cochran’s office. Atlast night’s mayor and board of aldermen meeting, Godbold said thecity would be getting an additional $1 million a year for up tofive years to complete the intermodal facility.

“It’s going to be quite a project,” the mayor said.

City officials want to put passenger train, bus and parkingfacilities in the transportation center, which will be located onWillard Street. Local trolley or bus services are otherpossibilities for the center.

When contacted for more details today, City Engineer Carl RayFurr said the $1 million, through the Federal TransitAdministration, is for site preparation, property acquisition andother preliminary aspects.

Next year, Furr indicated the city would seek $3 million inphase two to start building and to restore old buildings. Followingthat, phase three funds will be sought to complete the project.

“We won’t know final figures until we get enough informationfrom preliminary work,” Furr said.

The Brookhaven facility would be the third of its kinds in thestate, Furr said. One is being built in Harrison County, andBrookhaven is looking for an as “equally impressive” facility asone built in Meridian, which cost $5-$6 million to construct, hesaid.

Furr said there were no guarantees about funding, but he wasconfident money will be available now that phase one hasstarted.

“I’d say the odds are very good we’ll be able to finish theproject,” Furr said. “The key to the process is getting the projectstarted, and we’ve done that.”

The facility would be in the area near the old smoke stack. Themayor said plans may require the city to purchase some additionalproperty in that area.

“There’s certainly some old buildings over there we coulddestroy,” Godbold said.

In part to accommodate the facility, the city is looking atmoving city shop and vehicle maintenance services to the oldNational Guard armory on Highway 51. The city will receive thatbuilding when a new armory is completed on Highway 84.

“We’ll certainly be in haste to move out there,” Godboldsaid.

The mayor also mentioned an historic cotton gin that the city isinterested in buying for show reasons. A train museum has beenmentioned as one aspect of the intermodal facility.

“There’s going to be shops, cafes and any number of things upthere,” Godbold said.

The mayor expressed appreciation to aldermen for allowing him,Ward 4 Alderman John Roberts and Furr to travel to Washington tomeet with congressional leaders regarding funding for cityprojects. He said those trips were resulting in good things such asfacility funding.

“It’s a bigger day. It’s not just Whitworth this time. It’severything,” Godbold said, referring to previous efforts thatlanded some funds for improvements to the historic downtowncampus.