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Greene County to borrow $1.12 million for county bridge funding program

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WAYNESBURG – Greene County commissioners plan to borrow more than $1 million from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Bank as part of a state funding program that will provide the county with $3 million to rehabilitate county bridges.

The commissioners in May approved participation in the programs under which the county will receive $2 million in grants from the state’s Road Maintenance and Preservation Program and the $1.12 million low-interest loan from the infrastructure bank.

The commissioners will consider adopting an ordinance authorizing the loan nonelectoral debt at a meeting Thursday.

The funding programs represent a “very good deal” for the county, Commissioner Blair Zimmerman said. The county maintains 86 bridges, 18 of which are classified structurally deficient.

The county, in effect, will be receiving $3 million for local bridge projects; it will only have to repay $1 million of it through the low-interest loan, chief clerk Jeff Marshall said. The low-interest loan is needed because the county must match the grants dollar-for-dollar, he said.

The county was able to qualify for $1 million in grants for money it previously spent on county bridges, Marshall said. The other $1 million grant will be used to rehabilitate four additional bridges.

The loan will be repaid over 10 years with revenue the county receives from the $5 fee the commissioners approved two years ago on residents’ annual vehicle registration. Act 89 of 2013 gave counties the option of imposing the $5 registration fee to use for local highway projects.

The $5, which is added to the normal vehicle registration fee, brings the county about $190,000 a year, Marshall said.

The county’s participation in the Act 89 program and the imposition of the $5 fee is what enabled the county to obtain money from the state Department of Transportation’s funding programs, Zimmerman said. The grant money was awarded only to the counties that imposed the $5 registration fee, he said. Twenty-one counties now levy the fee.

The four bridges to be rehabilitated with the money include Bridge No. 31 on Route 491 in Franklin Township over Smith Creek; Bridge No. 8 on Route 357 in Perry Township over Shannon Run; Bridge No. 73 on Route 629 in Morris Township over Bates Fork; and Bridge No. 75 on Route 478 in Morris Township over Browns Creek.

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