On Friday, Jan. 29, the Madison County Board of County Commissioners met in a special session at 4 p.m. The purpose of this special meeting was to prioritize road projects for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) funding and local gas tax funded projects.
FDOT representatives reviewed the scope of the county's FDOT funded projects such as Small County Road Assistance Program (SCRAP), Small County Outreach Program (SCOP), Transportation Regional Incentive Program (TRIP) and County Incentive Grant Program (CIGP), according to County Engineer Bill Steves. Steves reported funding for sidewalk improvements. Lonnie Thigpen with Public Works and Steves recommended the following projects be forwarded to FDOT based on the prioritization elements and FDOT recommendations: SW Morris Steen Road, TRIP; SE Farm Road, CIGP; SW St. Augustine Road, CIGP; NE Clover Ave (Phase 1), SCOP; NE Juniper Drive (Phase 1), SCOP; NE Oak Hill Road, SCRAP and CR 253, SCRAP.
Steves recommended NE Almond Avenue, District 1; NE Shrine Club Road, District 1; NE Old Valdosta Road, District 2; NE Olive Street, District 2; SW Floridena Road, District 3; SW Dupont Street, District 4 and NE Cactus Avenue, District 5.
Clerk of Court Tim Sanders mentioned that the current loan of $2,750,000 for five local gas tax road improvement projects is scheduled to be paid off mid-year in 2018. Sanders also reported that an early payoff of the loan could occur in 2017 based on the expenditures for the Wonderwood and Celosia projects once they are completed.
Steves told the Board that FDOT will be asking for another submission of the FDOT funded road improvement project requests later in the fall of this year. In addition, counties will be required to be local agency planning certified in order to be eligible for federal funding associated with state funded projects.
The board approved the FDOT funding requests for all of the road improvement projects and local gas tax projects 3-0.
With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:40 p.m.