Wednesday, May 25, 2016
HIGHWAY PROJECTS
I think we can all agree that Lawrence County’s Highway Department has a bigger day-to-day impact on our lives than any other county service. Donnie Joe Brown’s department is responsible for 1,066 miles of roads in our county, and you will probably drive on part of them today.
Commissioners gave Brown long-overdue help last year with $2 million, which is being funded with 7 cents of last year’s property tax increase. He is using that money to buy tar, gravel and asphalt to resurface many county roads.
Representative Barry Doss, Governor Bill Haslam and others on Capitol Hill are on the same page as our Commissioners. Counties all over the state have roads in poor repair because the cost of maintaining them continues to rise.
For that reason, Rep. Doss proposed a bill that is now giving every county additional funding for roads. Here’s an excerpt from Tennessee County News, a publication of the Tennessee County Services Association.
“The conversation for this much needed county aid appropriation began in 2015 with Rep. Barry Doss. At the start of the legislative session, Representative Doss introduced HB 2142 which sought to give $100 million in state surplus dollars to county highway departments. He gained the attention and support of almost every member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, including the support of Speaker of the House Beth Harwell, as is evident by the 87 Representatives who signed onto the proposed legislation as co-sponsors.
“Sen. Jim Tracy was also very instrumental in gaining support for the proposal in the Senate. On multiple occasions Representative Doss met with Governor Haslam to promote his idea by discussing the declining condition of the county road system and the immediate need for additional funding. While Governor Haslam did not ultimately agree that giving $100 million of state funds directly to county highway departments was the solution, he did see the merit in appropriating $42 million to the state aid program to be used solely by counties.
“This non-recurring $42 million appropriation is in addition to the current $21 million of recurring funding already in the state aid program.”
Lawrence County receives approximately $229,000 a year in state aid funds. In 2016-17, we will receive that amount plus another $450,000, thanks to Doss’s work.
How will that money be spent? State aid funds must be used on county roads that meet certain requirements, one being that they connect to existing state roads.
One Brown has slated for improvement is Buffalo Road, from its split with Henryville Road (State Highway 242) to the Turnpike (State Highway 240), a total of 5.4 miles.
This particular project would have happened without the additional funds, Brown explained. Because one year’s regular allocation would only pave about 2-1/2 miles, he saved the $229,000 from 2015-16 to pair with 2016-17’s funding in order to pave all 5.4 miles.
State officials have to approve plans using state aid money, and projects using the additional funds have been submitted. With that approval, Beartown Road between Highway 43 South and Fairview Road (2.2 miles); and Glendale Road, from Highway 43 South to Highway 98/Rabbit Trail Road (4.4 miles) will be repaved.
All three projects call for new asphalt to be laid on top of the existing road, so drivers won’t have to deal with extended road projects.
It’s great to have representatives who not only understand the problems county government face, but are willing to act boldly on that knowledge. We can thank Rep. Doss for those extra road funds, and Donnie Joe Brown for their good use.
