$4.6 MILLION BOND PROPOSAL FOR ROAD IMPROVEMENTS

Elyria – Ken Carney, County Engineer, announced today that the County Commissioners has authorized him to pursue cooperative agreements with cities and villages in anticipation of issuance of $4-5 million in bonds to promote engineering for municipal & county road improvement projects.

“In these difficult economic times, we must make best use of as much federal & state funds as possible”, Carney says. Ohio has always been a donor state regarding federal gas tax receipts, receiving only $.88 cents for every $1.00 sent. The first step in combating this inequity is to have completed engineering plans for proposed projects. Without completed plans, the Federal agencies that control & distribute funding will not list and schedule projects for construction.

This bond will provide funds to complete engineering on several county projects and provide similar funds for completing engineering towards important projects within municipalities and villages.

It works like this; Cities will select their most important project and request assistance from the County Engineer Office. If approved, the city and county enter into an agreement with the engineer advancing the funds to complete the engineering, and the municipality repaying the money over a 10-year period, interest free.

Carney says with engineering plans complete, the process will be moved forward to pursue and secure federal and state grants to construct the projects.