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Villages To Divvy Up Funds |
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Thursday, 04 June 2009 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Managing Editor
ST. MARYS — The seven villages in Auglaize County are slated to receive varying amounts of money from a stimulus package that could help enhance streets in the entities.
Auglaize County Engineer Doug Reinhart said the villages will split $200,000. The formula for the split will be based upon the population of each entity.
“It’s a formula I put together and I hope they accept it,” Reinhart said. “The governor just announced this a month ago and he put extremely finite deadlines on it.”
Under the formula, New Bremen and Minster would receive $58,000, Cridersville would receive $36,000, New Knoxville would get $18,000, Waynesfield would get $16,000 and Buckland and Uniopolis would each get $7,000. Reinhart said the population figures used to create the formula came from the 2000 census.
Reinhart, who met with village representatives Wednesday, said New Bremen offered to be the lead agent on the project. The county engineer said all in attendance seemed to favor the program.
“Everything went great with the meeting,” Reinhart said. “They seemed satisfied and it will get done.”
To help the process move on the fast-track, Reinhart said he plans to make his staff available to the villages to help determine what type of street projects could be done given the amount of money available to each entity.
Once all surveying work is finished, Reinhart said he plans to offer one bid package for the work in all seven villages.
“I want just one project and one bid,” Reinhart said.
“That’s the same way we do it with all 14 townships. I am confident it will happen. We have short deadlines and that’s why I offered my services to help them measure streets.”
The villages’ portion is half of the $400,000 allotted to the county. The cities of St. Marys and Wapakoneta each received $100,000 for street projects, with St. Marys being the lead agent on a joint-bidding process.
Reinhart said the eight-county district received approximately $3 million in stimulus funds. All projects must be submitted by July 1, after which two district meetings must be held before any projects can move ahead.
“I would like to submit projects for the entire district by the middle of August and if the Public Works Commission can turn around in a month’s time, that’s the middle of September,” Reinhart said.
“It takes three weeks to advertise bids so we are looking at October paving programs.”
If those time frames are not met, Reinhart said the projects would be put off until next spring.
“I wish we would have known about this two months ago,” he said. “I am really hoping it is October. That’s our real push.”
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 15 July 2009 )
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