Commissioners approve ARPA funds for 2023 road projects
The Richland County commissioners have allocated $800,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds designated for revenue loss replacement for a pair of road projects that County Engineer Adam Gove is planning this summer. The allocation was one of several actions involving funding or contracts that the board took at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
One of the projects Gove said will be done this summer is to resurface Millsboro Road from Ohio 314 to Lexington-Ontario Road and Cook Road from Greibling Road to Trimble Road. The work will include three-and-a-half to four miles of pavement at an estimated cost of $510,000.
The other road work calls for using C-CAP cold asphalt mix to resurface about 17 miles of five county roads at an estimated cost of $1.12 million, which is about two-thirds of what it would cost for hot mix asphalt. Gove explained that C-CAP is a process that uses a thick stone and asphalt emulsion mix that is applied at ambient temperature to the road surface and is rolled out similarly to the way hot mix is applied.
“It’s more open graded, it stays a little bit more flexible and you roll in a cover stone on top of it,” Gove said. “One of the benefits is it stays flexible and you can re-roll it if it gets out of shape. Hopefully it won’t crack as much as your hot mix asphalt.”
Gove noted that the C-CAP is good for certain types of roads that don’t have a lot of vehicle or truck traffic. He said the county already has used the process on several roads including Free, Olivesburg-Fitchville and Franklyn Church Roads and it is holding up so far.
ARPA funds could replace lost gas tax revenue
Gove also told the board that Clinton County has been keeping a spreadsheet on lost road-related revenue during the pandemic and has determined that counties lost $1.2 million each in state gasoline tax allocations in 2020 and 2021 because motorists were driving less. That would mean a possible $400,000 in additional ARPA revenue loss funds that could be allocated to county road and infrastructure projects.
Gove said he has several projects in mind but did not discuss them with the commissioners. County Business Manager Andrew Keller noted that federal officials recently changed ARPA regulations to allow revenue replacement funds to be used for road and infrastructure projects.
Commissioners also awarded contracts for hot mix asphalt that will be used for patching, repairing and leveling county roads to Sarver Paving Company of Ashland and Mar-Zane Materials of Mansfield. Sarver submitted a proposal for $82 per ton for surface asphalt and $69 per ton for base asphalt while Mar-Zane’s figures were $85 per ton for surface asphalt and $75 per ton for base material.
Kokosing Materials of Fredericktown was the only other company to submit a proposal.
“Sarver is located over in Ashland, so if we’re working in the north or northeast part of the county we would pull (material) from that location and anywhere else we would typically be pulling from Mar-Zane,” Gove explained the reason for the two contracts.
Gove noted in his supporting material that the prices were approximately 30% higher than 2022, which was 15% higher than 2021.
In other business presented by Gove, commissioners approved a $63,208 contract with Adena Corporation of Mansfield to replace a bridge on Anderson Road with a box culvert and gave the engineer permission to participate in the Ohio Department of Transportation’s salt purchasing program for up to 2,500 tons of road salt for next winter. Gove said the county highway department used only half of its salt this past winter, which indicates that prices could be down this year because suppliers probably still have salt “waiting to be used.”
Verizon to begin equipment installation on Lucas tower
Commissioner Tony Vero reported that the Ohio Department of Administrative Services has given the OK to start installing cell phone equipment on the Multi Agency Radio Communication System (MARCS) tower in Lucas and that Verizon is expected to begin installation work within the next few days.
“We believe, worst case scenario, we will have cellular equipment for the Village of Lucas and specifically the downtown area no later than October of this year,” he said.
Specifications for the county-owned tower that is leased to MARCS allowed for the addition of cell phone equipment to improve service to Lucas.
Vero said the feedback officials have received from law enforcement, fire and emergency services indicates that the MARCS equipment on the new tower has made a “significant” difference in their communication ability.
In other business, commissioners:• Approved an agreement for a $500,000 state Community Development Block Grant program critical infrastructure grant for the $2.8 million Shiloh water system improvement project.• Awarded a two-year contract with the option for three one-year renewals for fire equipment maintenance at various county buildings to Koorsen Fire and Security at a cost of $71,974 per year.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Richland County commissioners approve ARPA funds for road projects