December 22, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb County Highway Department is getting a big financial shot in the arm from the county.
During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission, as recommended by the ARP committee, voted to allocate one million dollars of remaining ARP funds to the local road department at the request of Supervisor Danny Hale specifically to be spent on improving roads. Also as part of the vote, the commission allocated another$65,000 in ARP funding toward a playground at the Belk Community Center and $11,890 for repairs to the Midway Community Center. A proposal to remodel the county complex office (Re-locating County Complex Main office closer to the front door) using $20,000 in ARP money will instead be reassigned from the budget’s capital projects fund.
The vote was 9 to 4 in favor. Those voting for the ARP allocations as recommended by the ARP committee were Commissioners Tom Chandler, Tony Luna, Tony (Cully) Culwell, Beth Pafford, Greg Matthews, Justin Adcock, Tim Reynolds, Sabrina Farler, and Daniel Cripps. Commissioners voting no were Myron Rhody, Jeff Barnes, Susannah Cripps Daughtry, and Glynn Merriman. Larry Green was absent.
After the meeting, third district commissioner Tony Luna told WJLE that he wanted to make a statement about his vote in favor of ARP funding for the county highway department. Luna said during the campaign he found that the most important issue on the minds of people in his district was the need for the county to do more to improve roads.
“I am honored to get this ARP money, but the bigger honor is that the citizens are going to be honored that the county commission is helping with their roads,” said Road Supervisor Hale after the meeting Thursday night. “Unless we get help from the county commission, we are limited to what we can do because of revenue. I am thankful to the commissioners who supported me in this, and it will be put to good use. All the money will be put into chipping roads,” Hale continued.
Hale first addressed the ARP committee in November with his request.
Although the road department is primarily funded by allocations from state sources such as gasoline and motor fuel tax, state aid program, and the petroleum special tax, it also benefits from a local mineral severance tax and the county currently kicks in .0326 cents of the local property tax rate which, according to the budget comes to about $196,597 a year.
Even with this extra one million dollars to the highway department, Road Supervisor Hale said he will only be able to service about 16 miles of roads. Although it is not near enough to do the work needed, Hale said it is a step in the right direction and he appreciates the good faith effort by the county commission to help him.
“I previously gave them (county commissioners) a paper showing three roads in every district that were the worst roads as far as my opinion but that may change depending on the severity of the winter, but my plan is to do some (tar and chip) work in every district until the ARP money runs out. When I start a project, I like to do the whole road because once it’s finished, I can move onto another road. What I look for is the most traveled roads with the most houses on it or the highest used roads. That gives us more bang for the buck. We don’t want to leave anybody out, but the most traveled roads are usually the worst because they deteriorate faster. During the winter I will prepare the roads to be tarred and chipped next summer” added Hale. “I will go in and replace tiles, clean ditches and do as much prep work as I can so that when warm weather returns, we are ready to roll out the tar and chip,” he said.
Breaking it down by month, Hale explained to the ARP committee in November that his department receives an average of $210,786 in state revenue and $16,416 in county tax funds for a total of $227,202 while the cost to operate is $128,506 per month which covers everything but paving, chipping, and buying equipment.
According to Hale that leaves him only $98, 696 per month to service 514 miles of roads in DeKalb County or $192 per mile in which to tar and chip or pave.
“Eighty five percent of our roads need to be redone (repaved or re-chipped). That’s a reality. Our roads are all to pieces. Its costs us $60,000 to $90,000 per mile to chip a road and $150,000 to $200,000 per mile to pave,” said Road Supervisor Hale.
With this final allocation, the county has now committed the entire $3,979,942 it has received from the federal government in ARP funding and as of November a total of $661,862 had already been spent.
Under ARP guidelines, all the money has to be obligated by December 31, 2024, and completely expended by the end of 2026.
Meanwhile in other business, the county commission, on a voice vote, adopted a budget amendment transferring $22,500 from the fund balance to county general to fund a fiscal agent/financial advisor position to be held by Steve Bates of Guardian Advisors, LLC based in Hohenwald to assist the county in financial planning and budget preparation services going forward.