July 18, 2005

A worse-than-usual winter, escalating fuel prices, and increased labor costs have area road officials contending with serious budget shortfalls.
Earlier this month officials from Brandon and Groveland townships–along with Village of Ortonville officials–were notified by the Road Commission for Oakland County that routine maintenance work along state roads including M-15 and I-75 through the area would be halted.
RCOC officials say the cut is due to a lack of state funding to pay for a maintenance contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation.
Oakland and Genesee are among the 60 of 83 Michigan counties contracting with MDOT to perform routine maintenance on state trunklines.
“The cost of maintaining the roads has increased,” said RCOC Public Relations Director Craig Bryson. “The amount of money just has not kept pace with the rate of inflation.”
The RCOC has received the same amount of state road funds in 2005 that was received in 2000, he added.
Work which will not be performed includes boulevard mowing, routine drainage work, routine pothole patching, litter removal, and road kill collection, Bryson said.
Bryson said in the worst-case scenario it could be October–the start of the new fiscal year–before any money is available to resume road maintenance.
Shortfalls in MDOT funding to the Genesee County Road Commission have forced officials to consider cutting maintenance on about 168 miles of state roads. GCRC officials met with MDOT in June, expressing concerns regarding the $300,000 to $350,000 needed by the county to care for the state roads.
As a result $500,000 was allocated by MDOT to the GCRC, enough until late July, says John Daly, amanger-director of the GCRC.
“The funding structure is archaic and obsolete, it’s been in effect since 1951,” said Daly. “If more money is not found Genesee County will end maintenance just like Oakland County.”
Daly says while the number of state lines have not increased drastically in Genesee County, the number of motorists on the roads have increased, resulting in more work needed.
MDOT officials remain optimistic funding will not be hampered.
Mike Hemmingsen, MDOT Genesee and Lapeer Transportation Service manager says there may be some cutbacks to the road commission, but not a complete cut of funding.
“We should be in pretty good shape until the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30,” said Hemmingsen.
“We’ll still do some elective work on roads but nowhere near what we did in the past. We can’t do everything. We may suspend the litter pick-up and some of the mowing along the roads. The county just completed one full cycle of mowing along the roads. That’s perhaps all for this year.”
“We don’t want this to happen again. We’ll find more money for next year.”