Ford County will join other Kansas counties in scrambling for funding under the federal government's new economic stimulus package.
The Ford County Commission decided Monday to seek federal funding for upgrading 113 Road from Wyatt Earp Boulevard to U.S. Highway 50. The county will submit the proposal to the Kansas Department of Transportation for consideration.
KDOT officials announced in February that Kansas will receive about $380 million for highway upgrades and public transportation projects under the economic stimulus package. The agency said that it would share about 20 percent of that money with cities and counties for local road projects, based on the state's formula for distributing federal transportation dollars.
KDOT's District 6, which includes Ford County and 18 other southwest Kansas counties, will receive approximately $3 million in federal funding. That could be a stumbling block for Ford County, which estimates that upgrading the south stretch of 113 Road could cost up to $1.5 million.
All applications for federal funding are due to KDOT by March 13, which doesn't give cities and counties much time to put their proposals together, said county engineer Jon Halbgewachs.
"There's going to be millions and millions of dollars, I think, of requests made for a very small pot of money," he said.
KDOT district officials will review proposals, choose the ones they want to see done and turn a list of projects into the agency's headquarters in Topeka. The agency hopes to announce the final list of projects by March 20.
After that occurs, cities and counties will have to have their projects ready for bid letting by Oct. 1 so the state can get that done by the end of the year, Halbgewachs said. That means all preliminary work, such as moving utilities and buying any necessary right of way, must be done by Oct. 1.
"It's a very challenging program," Halbgewachs said. "It's hard to determine what is going to be a selected project."
He said KDOT district officials will evaluate projects using three standards: Safety, preservation of existing roads and potential impact on economic development.
Commissioner Terry Williams said he believed the county should go ahead and submit the 113 Road project for KDOT to consider.
"As the saying goes, you don't ask, you're sure not going to get anything," he said.
Reach Eric Swanson at (620) 408-9917 or e-mail him at eric.swanson@dodgeglobe.com.
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