If you’ve followed headlines in the last week or so, you may have heard the unfortunate news that the U.S. Department of Transportation undercut CyRide’s application for funds to support the Intermodal Transit Hub by almost 80 percent.

The project, which was originally designed to put bike paths, public restrooms, bus stops, parking stalls and retail space all under one roof, was estimated to cost just more than $43 million, with just under $40 million expected to come from the TIGER program — a subset of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

It’s unfortunate, because it’s so rare to see such widespread support for a project of this magnitude in any community.

In the planning stages, DOT officials and CyRide’s Director Sheri Kyras received letters of support from dozens of city and university officials, student groups and local business owners, among them, President Geoffroy, the Government of the Student Body and the Graduate and Professional Student Senate.

Also counted among our supporters were Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin, and Rep. Tom Latham.

But the support didn’t stop there.

Iowa State, which owns the land the Hub would be built on, was prepared to donate the property to CyRide’s Ames Transit Agency.

Basically, great examples of students, professionals and city and university officials banding together to make something great happen in our community.

The project’s planners hosted a public forum Wednesday to review plans for cutting the original proposal into phases, each of which would represent complete, stand-alone additions to the Campustown business district that could add resources to revitalize the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, CyRide’s expansion didn’t make the cut, seeing as the purchase of new buses and other technology would constitute such a large expense, but planners promise to make it part of future proposals, and Kyras said in interviews after the forum that CyRide could make a second investment by the federal government more attractive.

The direction phase one seems to be taking would still add hundreds of parking spaces just a block to the south of campus; give centralized homes to Jefferson and Burlington Trailways; Heartland Senior Services and Executive Express’ shuttle to the airport in Des Moines; and provide public restrooms and showers for bicyclists.

And if the Federal Transit Administration approves the revised plans in May, construction would begin in December and finish by February 2012, according to the presentation made at Wednesday’s forum.

But a completed Hub promises even more parking, retail space and a new home for ISU’s Department of Public Safety.

It’s hard to see a downside to a public investment in a more accessible Campustown, and we hope to see support for the project from our state and federal senators and representatives to continue, as leaders in our community forge ahead in long-term planning for the future of the other side of Lincoln Way.

The hope is that the Intermodal Transit Hub would make Campustown a hub of activity in Ames, providing various forms of public and green transportation a centralized location to call home, and bring hundreds of new bodies to the neighborhood every day.