County to seek national grant for roads, bridges

County to seek national grant for roads, bridges News Staff Tue, 06/11/2024 - 9:36 am

• (TC GORDON | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Area Engineer Texas Department of Transportation Zach Husen (right) presents information to the Young County commissioners court Monday, June 10 about a national grant to aid in roads and bridges improvement projects.

TC Gordon news@grahamleader.com

In an effort to improve various county bridges and roads, Young County will form a committee to work on applying for national grant money to aid in projects.

Zack Husen, Area Engineer Texas Department of Transportation, presented information about this grant offered by the U.S. Department of Transportation at a commissioners court meeting Monday, June 10.

The Safe Streets and Roads for All discretionary program was established to help fund “regional, local and Tribal initiatives through grants to prevent roadway deaths and serious injuries,” according to the USDOT website.

“Young County has engaged a grant writer involved in some other grant efforts and he identified this one as a potential source of funding for some safety enhancement projects,” Husen said. “... I’ve tried to identify some applicable spots for inclusion in this grant, and it’s got to be tied to safety.”

There are four primary steps involved which need to be accomplished by the time the grant application opens in February 2025.

The first step is that a governing body has to set a goal of zero roadway fatalities and serious injuries or an ambitious percentage reduction of roadway fatalities and serious injuries by a specific date with a goal of eliminating them.

Once that goal has been set, a committee will need to be formed to work on the action plan development, implementation and monitoring.

“The thought is that we would get a representative from each precinct so we’d have the entire county covered,” Judge Win Graham said. “We couldn’t have more than two elected officials on the committee… (and) they could be a citizen from the precinct. It doesn’t have to be someone working for the county; Zach would be on the committee. Then we would identify bridges and dangerous roads throughout the county that we can improve.”

With a committee formed, an analysis of existing conditions and trends would need to be completed. The fourth step would be to engage the public and receive collaboration through that committee’s work.

“We’re going to need to accumulate in each precinct a list of projects, and then we’re going to need to rank those projects. We’re probably going to have to have some public hearings to discuss these projects; it’s going to be a pretty long process, but with a big payout,” Graham said. “If we get this grant we could do a lot of road work, we could do a lot of improvements. So easy for me to say that I’m excited about this.”

The court commissioners voted unanimously in favor of pursuing this grant and approved the formation of the committee to begin work on the project as soon as possible.

“I looked into the grant on (USDOT’s) website a little bit, and there hadn’t been a county in Texas apply for this grant. There’s been several municipalities, there’s been counties in other states that have successfully been awarded this grant, so (Young County is) definitely eligible,” Husen said.

There is a lot of work to be done before the grant application opens next February. While there’s no certainty any grant money will come in, the formation of the committee and the work it accomplishes will help the county identify areas of need.

“If we’re unsuccessful in being awarded the grant, at a minimum we have at least identified a list of projects and the priority for Young County to figure out how to move forward,” Husen said.

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