On October 14, the Board of Commissioners are scheduled to open and award bids for three asphalt paving projects. These include one mile of Macarthur Blvd. from Waterloo to Simmons Rd., Santa Fe from College to Cooksey and two miles of Midwest from Waterloo to Charter Oak.
Late last year, grant funds were approved for both Macarthur and Santa Fe through the Rural Economic Action Plan administered by the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG). However, the county could not go out to bid or begin work until contracts were signed in July and ACOG issued a notice to proceed.
Macarthur was approved for $30,724 of funding and Santa Fe for $58,887. Each of the projects are projected to cost more than this, but county funds and citizen donations will help provide the difference.
District 1 applied for REAP funding for Macarthur, and District 3 prepared the REAP application for Santa Fe. However, since commission districts have changed due to redistricting, paving Santa Fe will be a collaborative effort between Districts 1 and 3. In District 2, the process has begun for clearing right-of-way in preparation for paving Midwest.
We are now into a new REAP cycle and each of the districts are preparing applications for other road improvement projects. Each district may submit four applications but only one project per entity can be awarded, and this is only if it qualifies for funding. Criteria established by the legislature mandates that REAP grants must benefit “rural” areas, where population is 7000 or less within a five-mile radius. This automatically eliminates many areas of District 1, where growth in the last few years has been significant.
Within the REAP program, the less the population, the more points an application receives. This is one reason Santa Fe and Macarthur were funded. As indicated by the census, population in the five-mile radius of these areas ranges from one to two thousand residents.
It is interesting to observe how our funding opportunities shift due to growth in the county. Some roads qualify for improvement due to low population, and others because of high traffic count. To stay abreast of this and the various funding programs is challenging, but on October 14, as we open and award bids, we will be continuing the process of making improvements in Logan County.
Mark Sharpton
Commissioner
Logan County District 1
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