The Brown County Commissioners have signed the grant that will give the county $1 million to pave roads this year.
At their March 3 meeting, commissioner Diana Biddle signed the agreement with the Indiana Department of Transportation for the Community Crossings grants. President Dave Anderson was not at the meeting.
Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said the money would be transferred to the county in six to eight weeks. The county will be required to match the grant at 25 percent.
Magner said he had created a line item in his budget last summer for that purpose. “Right now there’s over $200,000 showing there, but I have the money left over from last year, so I need to go back to council and do an additional appropriation and get the rest of the money put back in that line item,” he said.
That money will come from the county’s motor vehicle highway fund, which is partially funded by the county’s wheel tax. “I already budgeted last fall for the full amount, so it’s in the budget already, just not in that line item,” Magner said.
Now that the county will receive grant funding to help pave roads, Magner said he can go back and reassess roads to be paved with local funding in 2019. He said there will be around $600,000 or $700,000 available for local paving projects once the grant is matched.
He said he would work on a new road priority list and should be able to bring it to the next commissioners meeting on April 17. The county will open bids for the road projects to be funded with Community Crossings at the May 15 meeting after advertising them twice.
Resident Sherrie Mitchell asked the commissioners and Magner about publishing their paving schedule on the county’s website. Biddle said the document would be updated and put on the county’s website along with being shared with The Democrat newspaper.
Magner said the plan is a “living document” and changes as roads are reassessed. For instance, last spring, Clay Lick was in good shape, but since flooding hit it earlier this spring, it has fallen apart, he said.
Which roads get paved also depends on how much companies bid to do the work, Biddle said.
Magner said he will have an updated road paving list in June after bids are opened for the Community Crossings projects in May.
