Floyd to get $1.9M in road money
A change in the state gas tax is producing more revenue for local maintenance and improvement projects.
Floyd County is expecting nearly $2 million from the state next year for roads, bridges and drainage projects — a substantial increase from the annual grants awarded before the change in the gas tax
“That is the best thing that could have happened for us,” County Manager Jamie McCord said Tuesday.
Money started flowing last year after a shift from a motor fuel sales tax to a per-gallon excise tax. New fees on heavy trucks and electric cars — plus a $5-per-night
surcharge on hotel stays — also were part of the Transportation Funding Act of 2015.
Most of the revenue is allocated to Georgia Department of Transportation projects, but cities and counties get a share for smaller internal projects through the Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant program.
After averaging about $750,000 a year under the old formula,
Floyd County received notice of a $1,140,000 LMIG award last summer. McCord said the next one would be for $1,940,000.
“There’s an increase in the distribution formula statewide,” he told the County Commission at its caucus session.
Public Works Director Michael Skeen is starting to prepare a project list, due to GDOT by Dec. 31, for review. McCord said he expects most of it to go to paving.
Floyd County has to put up a 30-percent local match because voters here did not pass the T-SPLOST. State lawmakers pressed the transportation sales tax referendum in 2012 to shore up waning motor fuel revenue but only three regions passed it.
The county has the equipment and crews to do the projects, so its local match will come in the form of labor.
“Some other communities … don’t have the capabilities and they have to figure out where they’re going to get that money,” McCord told the board.
In other actions Tuesday, commissioners approved special-use permits for cell towers on Fosters Mill Road, Marion Dairy Road and Gadsden Road with little debate.
“You just don’t have as much discretion as you would like to have,” County Attorney Wade Hoyt said, citing the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Commissioners also approved Heavy Commercial zoning for the former Thornton Pest Control building on Walenda Drive, which will be used for a new auto repair shop. There are several residences nearby, but the property — and neighboring tracts — have a long history of hosting industrial-type operations.
The board also awarded service pins to longserving employees and presented a basket of flowers to Linda Harris, who is retiring from the county manager’s office Friday.