The roadwork money will be added to Wilkens’ projects next year. Cities in Butler County manage their own road maintenance and paving programs, but Wilkens’ office bids and supervises township road projects, and the townships pay for the work.
Wilkens said he will put the bids out in January but he is worried how far the money will actually go.
“Inflation has set in and gobbled up a lot of that,” Wilkens said. “Our top course pavement went up 40% in the last year.”
The commissioners are giving Wilkens a total of $2.5 million for county roads over two years — a $225,000 base for each township plus additional stipends based on the number miles the jurisdictions maintain in each of the next two years. With the additional allocations, the range is $918,068 for West Chester Twp. to $473,194 for tiny Lemon Twp. The county maintains 266 miles, while West Chester has 227 and Lemon Twp. has 11.
Originally the commissioners approved $4 million in funding to help the townships fix their roads, but they upped the allocation to $5 million in August. Commissioner Cindy Carpenter said she was happy to sweeten the pot.
“When we saw the details of the $4 million some of the numbers were so low it didn’t seem you could do much with $100,000 here, $100,000 there,” Carpenter said.
President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law March 11, 2021, and it allocated $350 billion to help local governments with pains caused by the coronavirus pandemic. When the commissioners learned of the windfall last year, they invited other governments and entities to pitch projects, and the requests totaled in excess of $200 million.
Wilkens has been begging the commissioners for more money for years to keep the county roads in good shape. Right now he said he can repave county roads every 17 years but inflation is likely going to change with that schedule.
“We’re on about a 17-year cycle and we’re just analyzing that, I’m not sure with this inflation, I’ve got two years of the commissioners’ (funding) I can hold that true for sure,” Wilkens said. “But I’m not so sure I’m going to be able to hold that with the prices where they’re at. We may have to up to a 20-, 21-, 22-year cycle.”
Some of the townships, like Liberty, have dedicated their own allocations of ARPA to fixing roads. The township generally budgets $1 million annually on road repairs. Trustee Tom Farrell told the Journal-News the township is spending its own $4 million ARPA dollars on roads and the commissioners’ $771,898 contribution will help enormously.
“The growth in Liberty creates a large burden on infrastructure, if the infrastructure is not there people will leave,” Farrell said. “The infrastructure is the foundation to our growth and making sure we have responsible growth. Our roads have always been a concern financially, we have been working for decades trying to make sure the money is there to keep the roads in good shape and the infrastructure solid. This will go a long way in helping that.”
Hanover Twp. Administrator Bruce Henry told the Journal-News they generally spend $250,000 to $300,000 on road projects annually so their two-year allocation of $524,154 “it’s certainly going to be an additional shot in the arm.” But with inflation and other costs associated with paving it’s hard to get many miles done.
“If prices edge up higher the amount of lane mileage you can do shrinks, it’s kind of a moving target,” Henry said. “It’s helpful for sure because most of the small townships are always trying to play catch-up on roads, but paving is so expensive. It would be nice if we could repave everything but we can’t.”
He said he is hoping they will be able to pave a total of three miles over two years if prices don’t skyrocket anymore.
Ross Twp. is getting $547,880 from the two-year program and Fiscal Officer Julie Joyce-Smith said they spent $514,924 this year on paving contracts, $162,817 last year and $315,271 in 2020. She said the high petroleum and other costs drove prices up this year hence the large increased cost.
Next year they plan to use their own ARPA dollars along with $273,940 from the commissioners for a total paving budget of about $1 million.
“Roads and infrastructure are at the core, the most basic and important aspect of a township’s ability to function effectively,” Joyce-Smith said. “The residents of Ross Twp. will receive long term benefit from the commissioner’s forward thinking and generosity.”
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