City Pursues State Funds For Road-Related Work

Toccoa is pursuing state funding for further road improvements in the city.

At their work session and meeting Monday, city commissioners looked at two state funding options for road-related projects in the city.

First, commissioners considered the 2015 LMIG Project List.

LMIG stands for Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant and is state money that the city receives each year to use on street projects.

This coming year, the city is receiving over $98,000 in LMIG funds from the state and City Manager Billy Morse said there are multiple options for the city to use that money.

At the top of the list was building handicap ramps at intersections along South Broad Street, followed by re-surfacing about a mile of streets, or extending a box culvert on Crane Mountain Road near Scenic Drive.

Morse said the city could also choose to save the money for a period of time.

“The DOT will let you bank this money for three years if you tell them in advance what you are going to do with it,” said Morse.

City commissioners said they like the idea of banking the money, but also want to do the handicap ramps along South Broad, a project that would cost about $40,000.

As Vice-Mayor Terry Carter explained, the city commission has chosen to move ahead with that project by finding that $40,000 or so elsewhere.

“We decided we are going to fund that out of our existing funds,” said Carter.

City commissioners were given a number of options for what to do with the money if the city saved it for three years, including a larger street re-surfacing project, building a sidewalk from Rose Lane to the entrance of Wal-Mart, or construction a stacking turn lane for southbound Middle School traffic on Rose Lane.

Commissioners voted to table that decision until a future meeting.

Morse said the city does not have to turn its decision to the DOT until the end of December.

“It appears we need more time to evaluate those projects and decide which direction we want to go in,” said Morse.

Meanwhile, city commissioners did approve a project resolution Monday to pursue state funds known as an Off-System Safety Grant.

Morse said this money would also come from the DOT.

“The Department of Transportation has grant funds in the amount of $100,000 that can be used for re-striping or replacing older, faded traffic control signs,” said Morse.

The city commission approved using KCI Engineers at a cost of $12,800 for obtaining and administering the grant.

The money for the engineering firm will come from SPLOST V, said Morse.

If approved, the city could receive up to $100,000.