Jackson County and two of its municipalities have been awarded grant funding to pave roads.
The county will receive the most from the Community Crossings Matching Grant program at $1 million, which is the maximum amount that can be applied for, while Crothersville is next at $359,897.25, and Seymour will get $108,200.18.
On Thursday, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner Joe McGuinness announced 218 cities, towns and counties received a combined $100.2 million in state matching funds for local road projects through CCMG, a component of the governor’s Next Level Roads program.
To qualify for funding, local governments must provide local matching funds — 50% for larger communities or 25% for smaller communities — from a funding source approved for road and bridge construction. They must also submit an INDOT-approved asset management plan for maintaining existing roads and bridges.
State law requires annually that 50% of the available matching funds be awarded to communities within counties with a population of 50,000 or fewer. State lawmakers identified long-term funding for CCMG as part of House Enrolled Act 1002, passed by the legislature and signed into law by Holcomb in April 2017.
Jackson County
County Highway Superintendent Jerry Ault said the CCMG funding is a “very big relief.”
All of the funding will go toward paving 19 county roads that total 10.969 miles. They include 475E, 50S, 1250E, Cleveland, 625N, 450N, 975E, 475N, 640W, 600W, 400N, 525S, 1275E, 475S, 425W, 600S, 150E, 150S and 325N.
Ault said he’s glad the funding can be used toward paving, sidewalks and bridges because the highway department is tight on funds for paving.
“We normally have $1.2 million for paving, but this year, we only have $645,000 due to loss of revenue from COVID,” Ault said.
At recent county council meetings, Ault has discussed how the county wasn’t able to get road tax funds due to less people buying gas after the pandemic broke out in March 2020.
The price of asphalt also has increased in recent months due to the price of petroleum being up.
Crothersville
Crothersville was selected for CCMG funding for the fourth time.
Adding in the town’s match will provide $359,897.25 in road project work for 2021, town council President Danieta Foster said.
In 2020, the town also was awarded the full amount it applied for — $206,298.75. That followed the nearly $641,000 in CCMG funding the town received for paving projects in 2018 and 2019.
“I am very excited at the opportunities that CCMG has provided for the town,” Foster said. “Crothersville has a budget of between $80,000 and $90,000. The availability of these grants allows us to stretch our road budget far beyond what we could accomplish without them. We have made a huge dent in the amount of work that was needed five years ago. Most of the big projects have been conquered as far as roads go.”
Foster thanked Street Superintendent Mike Deaton and Utilities Director Mason Boicourt for their hard work helping make this year’s funding happen.
“It makes my job along with the rest of the council a lot easier,” she said. “We are all very appreciative of these awards.”
This year, work will be done on nine streets: Kovener Street, Walnut Street, Myers Street, Seymour Road, Vine Street, Dixon Street, South Dismore Street, North Dismore Street and Bard Street.
As for when work will start, Foster said the town is awaiting instructions and its timeline from the state.
Seymour
Seymour will not be able to pave any additional roads this year, as the city only received a small fraction of the money officials had hoped to get from CCMG. The city applied for $1 million.
Although disappointed, Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson said he was trying to look on the bright side of things.
“While we didn’t get what we hoped for originally, we did get something, and that helps,” he said.
The plan was to use the $1 million from the state coupled with $1 million in matching funds from the city for a total of $2 million to repave or apply a surface rejuvenator treatment on 17 miles of city streets.
The city had received three bids for the work, which also included the reconstruction of Phillips Lane. Dave O’Mara Contractor Inc. had the lowest bid of $2,050,788.70 for both projects. The engineer’s estimated cost for the work was $2,298,142.91.
City engineer Bernie Hauersperger said he was expecting to receive the full amount requested from CCMG or at least half.
“These grant changes are expected to cause us to delay both Phillips Lane and the repaving projects until funding is in place,” he said.
He decided to go ahead and bid the projects to try to get them completed this year and to get better pricing prior to May when there is a rush of paving projects in the area.
“The city does not expect to award either paving project at this time, as the 50% match funding is critical to getting our best cost with city dollars,” he said.
On a positive note, Hauersperger said he was grateful for the funding the city did receive, which will pay for pavement rejuvenator or what he calls “a jolt of life” on about 9 miles of roadway.
“This provides a lot of road miles of improvement that affects the road lifespan, even if minimally improving the condition rating,” he said. “This is going to be a little harder for some to understand when a bad road gets nothing and a better road gets painted black, but that is what we have as our best use of money at this time.”
Nicholson said the rejuvenator treatment is better than nothing.
“This will help us prolong the life of those 9 miles,” he said.
They plan to review any feedback from INDOT and apply for the second round of CCMG funding in July.
“We are hopeful for full funding later this year,” Hauersperger said. “These projects will remain shelf ready when funding allows. We should have minimal cost in reapplying, but this will delay paving work to 2022.”
Nicholson also is hoping Seymour will benefit from President Joe Biden’s plan to invest $2.25 trillion into the country’s infrastructure.
“We will be ready in the event that road funding becomes available from the conversations going on at the federal level right now,” he said.
Last spring, Seymour received $999,997.50 from CCMG, which it matched with funding from the redevelopment commission for a total of about $2 million that repaved portions of 40 city streets totaling 7 miles.
The condition of Seymour’s streets is at an all-time high thanks to the CCMG program and the city’s asset management plan put into place in 2014.
Since 2016, Seymour has received more than $4 million from the state from the CCMG program and has invested a total of roughly $8 million in road maintenance. Before that time, the city was only putting about $150,000 to $200,000 into road repairs annually.
Program information
The Community Crossings initiative has provided more than $931 million in state matching funds for local construction projects since 2016.
Communities submitted applications for funding during a highly competitive call for projects in January. Applications were evaluated based on need and current conditions and impacts to safety and economic development. Funding for CCMG comes from the state’s local road and bridge matching grant fund.
“Superior transportation infrastructure, from interstates to local roads and everything connecting in between, make our communities safer, attractive places to do business and create jobs,” Holcomb said. “Thriving communities in turn provide exceptional places for Hoosiers to call home and raise families. With that in mind, I’m so pleased to invest and partner with local leaders to deliver on high-priority projects that keep Indiana moving forward.”
McGuinness said CCMG is a major asset to Indiana cities, towns and counties as they build and modernize local roads and bridges.
“The state’s funding partnership allows local partners to tackle larger scale project more quickly than would otherwise be possible, maximize their resources to complete more projects and achieve the best possible value for Hoosiers,” he said.
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The list of all communities receiving matching funds in the 2021 winter/spring call for projects is online at in.gov/indot/communitycrossings.
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