York County continues process toward possibly “bundling” projects to get federal grants

YORK – This past week, the York County Commissioners agreed to a service agreement with Speece Lewis regarding the engineering of a bridge on Road 3.

​This project is one which is being included in a partnership with counties in an effort to apply for federal grant dollars.
Commissioner Daniel Grotz said he spoke with York County Highway Superintendent Harvey Keim about this project earlier. “This bridge is just off Highway 81 and is in need of work. It will be a costly bridge so federal dollars would be needed.”
This doesn’t mean counties are sharing bridges or roads or projects with other counties, explained York County Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier. Rather, this would be counties collectively applying for federal grant dollars they could then in turn use to complete badly needed but very expensive projects.
“Yes, this is just bundling projects to go out for funds,” said Commissioner Andy Bowman.
“Would the federal grant help pay for the planning process (preliminary engineering)?” asked Commissioner Joe Burgess. They said there would be percentages for certain aspects of projects.
“It’s a good deal, it may be kind of a reach but we will see what happens,” Obermier said.
“I thought it was a reach too, at first, but when we recently had a meeting with other counties, we found how other counties have already benefitted from bundling projects like this,” Bowman said.