Four wooden signs nailed to trees that line the edge of Lick Creek Road before a hill, where one side of the road is crumbling, read: Slow down bad road.

Down south on Mt. Liberty Road, residents also have put up signs to express their opinions. One sign read: “This road is crap.” And a toilet was placed nearby.

Portions of both those roads are set to be paved this year using money from the state’s Community Crossings matching grant program.

Last year, the county received $1 million from Community Crossings. The plan was to use it to pave all of Becks Grove Road from State Road 135 to the county line; Mt. Liberty Road from Bellsville Pike to Rinnie Seitz Road; and the southern end of Lick Creek Road south of Cottonwood Road to State Road 45.

That was the third time the county had received $1 million from the program.

But the work was delayed on Mt. Liberty and Lick Creek due to weather, and only some prep work on Becks Grove was done in 2020. Now residents are questioning, once again, when will their road get paved?

The answer: When the weather is dry and contracted crews can work, Brown County Highway Superintendent Mike Magner said.

With rain in the forecast, residents will have to wait a bit longer.

“The ground is still wet and soft. The road base is just as soft as the ground around it,” Magner said in an email last week.

The projects also have to be worked the contractor’s schedule, All Star Paving. The local highway department crew does patching, ditching, culvert work and some paving prep work, Magner said; a contracted paving crew does the actual paving.

Last week, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced that 218 cities, towns and counties had received a combined $100.2 million in state matching funds for road projects.

Magner said he also plans to apply for another $1 million through Community Crossings this year, but Brown County will not apply until the second round of funding.

Property taxes do not generally pay for roads unless a separate loan is taken out to help pay for them, as the county has been doing lately.

Money to pave and maintain county roads usually comes from gas and excise taxes through the state, the Community Crossings grant program, and from the wheel tax you pay when you register vehicles in Brown County.

In addition to Community Crossings money, the highway department usually has a list of road work to complete with local funding. Magner said last week he was not sure yet which roads would be paved with local funds yet. He said his priority list is changing due to road damage from the winter and spring.

The county has a year and a half to use the Community Crossings grant money awarded last April.

In 2019, the county received $1 million in Community Crossings grant funding to pave Bellsville Pike, Greasy Creek and Nineveh roads.