Montgomery County to reallocate bond funds for road projects
Montgomery County commissioners are pooling leftover money from a $280 million road bond to help newly seated Precinct 4 Commissioner Matt Gray tackle needed mobility projects.
Following an executive session Tuesday, the court unanimously agreed to reclassify unused funds from the county’s 2015 road bond from precincts 1, 2 and 3 to Gray.
The county did not release the total amount Gray would receive since the discussion happened during an executive session.
The 2015 bond allocated $64 million to precincts 1 and 2, with $68 million for Precinct 4 followed by $84 million for Precinct 3.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie Riley was hesitant about the action and said the reallocation of the funds to Gray “was a lot of money for one man to spend.”
“I’ll (support) this motion, but we are going to have to watch what is going on real close,” Riley said.
Gray said the action does affect some pending projects.
“Some of the projects in Precinct 4 may be deferred, but we are going to spend that money and will work very hard to spend that money in Precinct 4 for road overlays and new roads and things like that,” Gray said.
Slow progress on projects included in the 2015 referendum has continued to plague East County.
In 2019, former Commissioner James Metts inherited more than $60 million in projects from his predecessor Commissioner Jim Clark who made little progress on the projects.
One project Gray said he would address is Sorters Road, which he called in “disarray.” Almost $18 million was earmarked in the bond to widen the road to four lanes from FM 1314 to Kingwood Drive.
Gray said he hopes to continue work on Ford Road, which has been hit with numerous delays.
In January, the court awarded a $306,784 contract to Kingwood-based WadeCon LLC to begin the rights-of-way clearing, said Purchasing Director Gilbert Jalomo.
The $11 million project will widen Ford Road from U.S. 59 in Montgomery County to the Harris County line.