Federal Transit Administration, Office of Program Management, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Room 9315, Washington, DC 20590

L -- TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL SUPPORT TO THE NATIONAL RURAL TRANSIT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (RTAP) DUE 062797 POC Sue Masselink or Mary Martha Churchman (202) 366-2053 The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) intends to award a competitive cooperative agreement to provide technical support to the national RTAP. The cooperative agreement will be for a five year period and the anticipated level of funding available on an annual basis will be between $500,000 and $750,000. The recipient of the cooperative agreement will assume primary responsibility for administration and management of the national RTAP and will develop and disseminate training materials designed for use by the state RTAP managers to ensure that the products developed and activities undertaken through the national RTAP are of use to and supportive of the state programs, promote information exchange at all levels, and encourage coordination of state efforts; maintain a national clearinghouse for rural transit technology-sharing and information dissemination, a central collection of products and services that are useful to rural transit professionals; promote and monitor use of the RTAP national resource center; develop and implement a national self-help technical assistance network that facilitates the exchange of technologies and techniques among rural transit operators on a peer-to-peer basis; provide a research and technical support capacity to FTA to address issues of immediate concern to the rural transit programs; maintain a mechanism for user input and feedback such as the program review board, which functions as the mechanism for providing the national program with guidance on priority needs in the areas of training materials development, information dissemination, and technical assistance. Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria: the overall technical approach to the requirements of the statement of work, particularly the proposer's understanding of the objectives of the national RTAP and how those objectives will be met by their proposal; the qualifications and work experience of proposed personnel; and the capability for managing an active and varied rural technical assistance program. Experience in working with rural transportation professionals from local, state and federal government as well as public and private transportation operators and volunteer organizations is an important requirement. If proposals indicate that some tasks may be performed by other organizations or subcontractor(s), the proposal should also demonstrate ability to oversee their performance. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which will be considered by the agency. Requests for a statement of work will be accepted until June 2, 1997. Proposals are due by June 27, 1997. To request a copy of the statement of work, please call FTA Office of Resource Management and State Programs at (202) 366-2053. (0133)

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