County Receives Grant Money to Repair Roads

Tom Green County qualified for a grant of $400,000 through a County Energy Reinvestment Zone. The funds come from the state, which divvied up money between the Texas Department of Transportation and recipient counties to fix roads impacted by energy industries.

“I was in Austin for a conference, I met with some legislators, and I asked about a different funding procedure and this one came up,” said Commissioner Bill Ford (Pct. 1). Once he figured out that Tom Green County qualified, he got the ball rolling and Tom Green County into the hat.

“Only the counties that applied under the initial grant will be a part of it, no county can just come in a few months from now,” said Commissioner Rick Bacon (Pct. 3). “If you don’t make it through the first round it goes back into the pot and gets reallocated.”

Bacon and the other commissioners consulted their list of projects for 2014 to find road-based projects to submit for the funds.

“That’s our whole point,” said Bacon. “We’re trying to qualify as many roads as we can to get an opportunity for additional funding.”

Roads currently on the list are Burma Road, Grape Creek Road, Christoval Road and Knickerbocker. Due to the high costs of repaving roads, between $36,000 for seal coating and $46,000 per mile for asphalt, the $400,000 will be used to fix segments of road.

“It’s not a lot, it’s not going very far, but it will free up some money for us to use,” Bacon explained. “It enables us to get a little bit more done than we can usually do in a years’ time.”