County looks to use stimulus for other road projects

Aiken County Council wants state transportation officials to see it their way and decide to not give valuable federal stimulus money to resurfacing projects on some roads that have just been widened or otherwise improved.

Council approved unanimously Tuesday a resolution asking that the South Carolina Department of Transportation be more "judicious" with the County's share of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act slated for road resurfacing, Councilman Scott Singer said.

Using the federal money for three of those projects would be a waste, he added, because widening and other improvement plans for the roads are already in the works.

It does not make sense to tear up a road and resurface it if it was torn up and widened just a short time before.

"Let's shift funding to other projects," Singer said.

The three roads in question are East Buena Vista Avenue in North Augusta and Silver Bluff Road and Dougherty Road in Aiken.

Neither North Augusta City Administrator Sam Bennett or Skip Grkovic, director of economic and community development, could be reached for comment.

Stephen Strohminger, director of County Planning and Development and the resolution's drafter, said there are "plenty" of other roads in Aiken County that could use the stimulus money.

However, it is not yet known if the stimulus money can be used on a different project than for what it was originally intended.

Singer said there is some fear that the money will be taken away if not used on something for which it was not allocated or if not used in a timely manner.

The legislation says it must be used within two years.

"I hope the money stays in Aiken County and they use it judiciously," he said. "It is incumbent upon public officials to use taxpayers' money wisely."

A local subcommittee of the Augusta Regional Transportation Study (ARTS) was the first to hear about the money earlier this month. Despite the discrepancy, the ARTS South Carolina Subcommittee voted by majority to add 13 resurfacing projects (including East Buena Vista, Silver Bluff and Dougherty) to the fiscal year 2008-2011 Transportation Improvement Program.

About $3.6 million from a different round of the stimulus package has been allotted for the work.

Singer abstained from voting then because of the overlap.

"It is very strange it's on one list to be widened now and on another one to be paved later," said City of Aiken Manager Roger LeDuc, who attended the subcommittee meeting.