There are funds available to the county for road and bridge work and equipment purchases over the next four years, and after Tuesday’s recess meeting, the Sunflower County Board of Supervisors have an idea of how much.
County Engineer Ron Cassada provided the group with figures and some options, but emphasized that they did not have to make a decision right away because he was basically providing information for their review so they can see where they are financially.
He mentioned four pots of money beginning with state-aid funds and said the group has $4,101,166 in state aid money that’s available for projects. "State-aid funds are funds that can only be used on your state-aid routes. It's about a hundred and fifty miles of roads," he said.
Of that money, Cassada said more than $1,908,000 is already projected for a job where bids are due to be opened in mid April, so that only leaves about $2 million to spend on maintaining the rest of the state aid roads and at a cost of around $100,000 to $150,000 per mile. At that rate, they will only be able to do around 15 miles of the 150 miles of state-aid roads in the county.
In addition to the state aid money, there is approximately $1.36 million in Local System Bridge Program funds. "That money is designated for bridges that aren't on the state aid route, but that are on your local system," said Cassada.
He told the members that two bridges in District 5, on Clark Road and Patterson Road, have been programmed already and will likely cost around $800,000 each to complete. "With that $1.36 million, with these seismic-design bridges you'll probably only be able to get one and a half bridges out of that over your four-year period, unless we get some additional money," Cassada said.
"Another pot of money is your ERBR money, that's your Emergency Road and Bridge Repair program," he said. According to Cassada, the county received $4 million to work on six bridges including the College Avenue Bridge in Indianola.
The drawback is the money was awarded per site and if a bridge comes in under budget, the extra money cannot be used on any other project it has to be returned to the state. If a project comes in over budget the county would have to pay the difference or reject the project and send the entire amount for that bridge back.
The final category that Cassada mentioned in his presentation was the use tax money that the county will eventually get, which amounts to $625,757 that will be handed down in phases.
Cassada said, "Based on the numbers we've got, based on what the legislature originally said, for planning purposes. In 2020 you're going to end up with about $156,000, the second year you'll get $312,000, third year you'll get $469,000 and then the fourth through the 10th you'll get your full amount of $625,000."
Cassada told them the money can be used for anything pertaining to transportation and construction.
After fielding questions from several board members Cassada shared his recommendations, one of which is to use the LSBP money first. Then, decide on how they're going to use some of the remaining state-aid road money and use tax money.
Cassada also suggested reassessing some projects, contracting out only the base work on those bridges and having the county do the roadwork coming up to the bridges in order to save money.
They discussed the cost of materials and addressed previous comments about the feasibility of the county repairing and paving roads. He said prices are high and it would cost about $18,000 per mile to do a reseal with liquid asphalt. "And to DBST it, you're looking at about $35,000 to $38,000 that's the two layers, that's what you put on gravel, that's per mile," he said.
In addition, considering the current cost of hot mix asphalt and just applying the material at the recommended 1.5-inch thickness, it would cost as much as $103,000 per mile.
In other business,
The county lawmakers voted 4-1 to try to delay the purchase of or extend the delivery date on two new small dump trucks because a purchase order has already been issued for them. District 1 Supervisor Glenn Donald and District 3 Supervisor Ben Gaston, citing that the county was currently in somewhat of a state of flux because of the emergency declarations, suggested holding off on any major purchases until later.
District 1 Supervisor Riley Rice cast the only no vote with the contention that not making the purchase would “shut down” the work of the road department.
They also voted 4-1 to cancel a request for a reverse auction to purchase new large dump trucks. Again, Rice voted no.
The board recessed until March 30.
