Colquitt County Administrator Chas Cannon , left , and Moultrie City Manager Pete Dillard , right , pose in late October 2021 with symbolic checks representing Community Development Block Grants the two governments have been approved for . The county will use its grant of $ 684,183 for improvements to Coy Cox Road , while the city will use its grant of $ 712,746 to purchase and renovate a former bank building to create a new mental health center . Submitted photo
While meetings regarding TSPLOST began in November , the conversation on how to allocate and use it properly takes many months .
“ TSPLOST is very critical for us . We use it to maintain right-of-ways , any overgrowth , basically just to service any county roads .”
The board has been working to pave at least “ one dirt road per year ” for the last seven years , he said . This is always one of the county ’ s biggest infrastructure projects and the money decides whether the county can continue that tradition . It costs much more for the county to pave a dirt road than to resurface an old paved road , Cannon said .
“ We want to continue paving the dirt roads . We do it through a grant process . Most of the money comes from the feds or the state and add on a little local money on top of that … It all depends on the money , if it ’ s not there we aren ’ t going to do it . There ’ s a lot of infrastructure that needs attention .”
One of the other major concerns for the board is the state of currently paved roads . Older roads and highways have become damaged from continuous use . Many current roads haven ’ t been able to stand up to the weights of semi-trucks , day-to-day traffic or heavy farming equipment . Cannon said the board wants to continue addressing the issue into 2022 .
“ Our roads aren ’ t able to withstand many of the weights put on them by the commercial and agricultural truck weights . So our goal is to increase the thickness of our county roads to withstand
JANUARY 2022 MoultrieScene 19