District Two: Several projects that rely on Motor Vehicle Use Tax is in jeopardy

We have been quite busy the past few weeks due to the damage weather has caused our roads.

We have finished gravelling CR76 between Hiwassee and Henney, Luther north of Hwy 105 and numerous other short sections of roads in east and northeast district. Charter Oak is on hold for reconstruction at thus time. Today we are putting shale on Industrial going west of Indian Meridian with our two end dump trucks and gravelling Seward and Post going north of that intersection with our 4 belly dumps. Rain and muddy roads are always a factor in delaying these many endeavors.

Green Oaks Way and Cedar Ln CDBG project should begin within the next few weeks barring weather. There was a change in some of the wording on bonding that our DA pointed out and our pre-work conference with the contractor was delayed till next week.

Many of our paved addition roads are in need of asphalt patching at this time. As long as our increased funding allows us, we will continue to help these residents in various additions to the best of our ability.

The first distribution of sales tax to District 2 was about $31,000 this month. It appears that May’s will be about $25,000. The loss of oil field workers seems to be the promary reason for this decrease.

RWD2 is within 2 miles of Hwy 33/105 intersection with their 10 mile waterline on Midwest. They will soon start another waterline from Langston Lake to the small town of Meridian down Indian Meridian Rd.

Loves will be reconstructing Midwest at Hwy 33 within the next two months. Rebar has been delivered & concrete trucks will be coming next week. Reducing grade on the Hwy 33 entrance is in the plans so a large amount of fill dirt will be coming to our district soon. The sewer line under I-35 will start in the next few weeks.

The concrete box bridge for the Cooper Hill project is complete. Within the next several weeks, the contractor will start covering it up and building a 5 degree sloped road to the top of that hill. He hopes to be finished by early June.

Several projects that we relied upon from Motor Vehicle Use Tax, also called CIRB funding, are in jeopardy. Originally, in 1915, counties directly received 65% of this tax. With the new ODOT requirements for a 5 degree slope on drainage ditches, 60ft of ROW in addition to the 66ft of statutory ROW, must be obtained. This escalates the cost of one mile of two lane asphalt road from about $400,000/mile to about $2M/mile. Needless to say, our CED5 board of commissioners were unaware of these recent requirements when these projects were submitted and approved. This affects a very large number of road projects across the entire state. We have been assured that the Luther Rd project will continue. But the Charter Oak, Simmons and Pine projects are in limbo. The two lane asphalt road being built on Coltrane north of Simmons to Seward is an example of these requirements. Though this is a federally funded project, the state is also following these requirements to make our county roads the safest possible. County money does not have these requirements and can pave these roads and make many more miles of county roads much safer and smoother with the same amount of money.

Please remember that we have a rolloff for all that unwanted furniture, appliances and junk that is free for all residents to use.

Our phones are your way of notifying us of road conditions. Do not count on “someone else” to keep us informed. We will respond as soon as we are able. Our office is 282-3405 and my cell is 405-650-0384. Or email us at [email protected].