Marshall County Council Considers Road Plan for Community Crossings Grant

The Marshall County Council received the proposed list of roads to be submitted for consideration for a $1 million Community Crossings grant during their meeting Monday morning.

Commissioner Kurt Garner noted that one project was omitted from the plan.

“The 17th Road/Dewey Street section south of Argos – we just felt like the project isn’t going to happen until next year so we think we can pull that out and substitute another one,” said Garner. “We’re actually going to do Michigan Road from the city limits all the way south to 110. That’s a highly traveled road surface that just needs to be preserved.”

The remaining part of the list will include Beech Road from U.S. 6 to 3B Road, 9th Road from Pioneer Drive to the county line west, Dogwood Road from the county line to State Road 331, old U.S. 31 in LaPaz to Tyler Road, and 13th Road from State Road 17 to Olive Trail.

The previous estimate of $1.4 million will be adjusted with that change in projects.

Highway Supervisor Jason Peters made the council aware that even though a particular project is being submitted, that work may not become reality.

“I don’t want everybody to be under the impression that we submitted these roads so these are all going to be done,” stated Peters. “There might only be two, there might only be three. It’s strictly based on funding which ones we’re going to do.”

If the county is awarded the grant money, many of the projects will begin next year depending on time and contractor availability. The council has committed $400,000 toward the county’s match. Preliminary discussions indicated that the funding would come from the Rainy Day Fund and the LOWIT fund out of the county’s budget.

Peters said that the county’s grant application will be submitted for consideration today. The state’s deadline for all grant applications is Friday, July 14. Grant recipients will be announced in October.