County amends its road plan

The Jackson County Commission fine-tuned a long-term road-spending plan at its meeting Tuesday.
The commission moved Sylvania Plantation Road up in the paving schedule. Originally set for fiscal year 2012-13, commissioners moved work on it to 2010-11.
This and other changes were discussed in a workshop prior to the commissions’ regular meeting.
After a public hearing and possible further revisions on Nov. 10 at 9:15 a.m., the commission will send the final document to the Department of Community Affairs for review.
Because the plan is part of the capital improvements element of the county’s Comprehensive Plan for growth, DCA review and approval is required.
Sylvania Plantation has been on the drawing board for paving for some time, and will take $2.5 million to complete. Some preliminary work is already in process, such as obtaining the rights-of-way needed from owners of property adjacent to the roadway.
The paving funds will come from the county’s road construction set-aside, which is funded by a 1 cent local option gas sales tax.
The county is also contemplating a bond issue to finance some paving, possibly including this project, but no action has yet been taken. The 1 cent tax could serve as collateral if the county goes ahead with the plan. Commissioners have already sought proposals from lending institutions concerning their interest rates.
The commission on Tuesday also scheduled several other road improvement projects for the next few fiscal years.
Wilmington Court, for instance, is scheduled for a $1.1 million improvement in 2009-10. It is being partially financed through a Department of Transportation grant of $459,883.
Sapp Road will be paved from Corbin Road to U.S. Highway 90 in 2009-10 with a Florida Department of Transportation grant of about $963,983, and some gas tax money to finish out the estimated cost of $1.5 million.
A portion of Thompson Road will be paved at a cost of $1.2 million in 2009-10 using gas tax money and a $60,000 DOT grant.
Filmore Drive (County Road 280A) will be paved from State Road 73 to Interstate 10 with a DOT grant of $381,150 and gas tax money finishing out the $550,000 project.
Blueberry Road will be resurfaced using a DOT grant of $503,554, in 2009-10.
The county will also seek a $200,000 grant to widen and pave the shoulders of this road, but moved that part of the project out to 2013-14 in case the grant request is not funded.
If the county had put that into the next three years of the long-term plan, DCA would require the county to pay for it, whether or not it was funded from another source. It could move to the current fiscal year and be done, along with the resurfacing, if the grant application is successful
The county will participate with the city of Campbellton in paving Bowden Hill Road from State Road 2 to Canniehead Road.
Campbellton got a USDA Rural Development grant of $84,000, and the county will contribute the rest, about $102,000 in gas tax revenue. The county had originally committed $20,000 to $30,000 of in-kind services and equipment, but two factors played into the change of plan. The county learned the project would cost significantly more, and it also decided to turn the project over to a contractor entirely. That raised the cost further.
The county is also seeking a grant to pave Compass Lake Drive, but with the fate of the application unknown, that project is set for 2013-14. It should cost roughly $2.5 million, and the county is looking at contributing some gas tax revenue if the grant is awarded, but is not enough to cover the full cost.