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Commissioner Pearson
In The News . . .
Wed, 13 Jan 2010
One of the busiest Logan County roads is set to receive comprehensive repaving following recent action by the Logan County Board of Commissioners. Commissioners, Michael Pearson, Monty Piearcy and Mark Sharpton voted unanimously to submit an application from District 2 to the Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma (ACCO) for repaving Douglas Boulevard from Waterloo Road north to Forrest Hills Road. ACCO approved the application and as a result, $1,250,000 of Surface Transportation Funding (STP) will be applied toward the project which is scheduled for 2014, but could begin sooner.
Winning approval for STP funding is difficult. In the last fifteen years, only two other projects in Logan County have qualified for STP funds. Under ACCO guidelines, only one application could be submitted by the commissioners, who chose the Douglas project because they felt it would meet the STP program criteria and score well.
Logan County District 2 Commissioner Michael Pearson stated that the funding became especially important as recent traffic counts demonstrated more than 3,000 vehicles travel Douglas on an average day. During Lazy E events there are more than 4,000 vehicles per day. "Because of explosive growth in Logan County, this road is taking a heavy pounding every day." Pearson said.
The STP funding will become an important part of District 2's long-term strategy for paving major section-line roads. Since taking office Pearson has strategically reclassified the legal designation of these roads in order to qualify for outside funding opportunities. Because of this Pearson has won approval for funding several major section-line projects. In the last 12 months, Logan County District 2 has secured approval for $275,000 of State Industrial Access Funding for paving Pine from Seward to Camp, and Camp from Pine to I-35; $23,517,000 in State CIRB Funding for paving Midwest from Waterloo to Forrest Hills, Forrest Hills from Midwest to Pine and Luther Road from Waterloo to Highway 105.
"Because of massive growth in South Logan County, it was imperative for these funding mechanisms to be put in place. Unfortunately, this has not happened in the past and today south Logan County roads are some of the worst in the state. However, we are going to change this as the long-term strategy for finding funds to pave county roads is starting to come together," Pearson explained.
Pearson said his current challenge is securing funding for Pine from Simpson to the south, and then he intends to start seeking funding for paving major east-west section-line roads.