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  Local News PUBLISHED:
Engineer-Manager Robb Falls reported they decided they had could afford to add an extra project. He notified the commissioners contractor Albrecht Sand & Gravel had agreed to extend the May price for the Galbraith Line project, which is the closest to Hall Road. Later, Accountant Joyce Hagan told the News some of the millage projects had come in under the estimate and together with some accrued interest on the millage funds, they could handle another $163,000. In May the engineers announced they were postponing two projects because of reduced funding. The engineers originally wanted to recycle and pave 3.5 miles of Maple Grove Road and resurface almost a mile of Parisville Road, but decided to save the $530,083 the projects would have cost. Including the Hall Road project, the department will spend $3,863,040 on paving projects, including $1,648,039 in federal aid for recycling and paving work on Bay City-Forestville Road, and resurfacing on Marlette Road. In the past the road commission has been able to fund extra paving projects from their operating fund or pay for a project out of the next year's primary road millage funds. However, state funding has been decreasing, and the agency can no longer afford to do that. Hagan reported although July's state gas and weight tax was higher than a year ago, she still hasn't put back the money she borrowed from the debt fund this winter. In addition, they still have not received the final bill on last year's Todd Road project. In other business, the board:
The road commission ended 2007 with $12,843,720 in revenue and expenditures of $13, 243,820. Adding loan proceeds of $825,092, they were able to add $424,992 to their fund equity, for a total fund balance of $2,478,398. He noted the fund balance is right within the recommended range. According to the audit, $2.197 million of the fund equity is undesignated. "I looks good on paper," said Hagan. However, the fund balance is made up of the agency's debt, operating, equipment and millage funds. Stevens also noted road millage has become an increasing amount of the fund balance since 2006, after dropping between 2004 and 2005. The road commission funds have dropped, but not as much as the amount of local road funds, each of which makes up much less of the fund balance than the millage funds. The fund balance also includes money they have not received yet, a good deal of which the road commission has earmarked. She explained later, a lot of the accrued money is set aside for Todd Road. The road commission is in good shape. They paid off the truck loan early and made it through the winter. Cash flow is their biggest problem. It is due in part to the fact that they cost share with the townships and do not make the townships pay up front for their road construction projects, instead allowing townships up to three years to pay off.
Pavement Recycling has finished pulverizing and stabilizing Galbraith Line Road and will begin to mill Marlette Road from Germania to Juhl Road later this month. They are scheduled to begin recycling Bay City-Forestville Road from M-53 to M-19 the first of August. "We are pushed back a little bit between the two contractors, but we are still on schedule," Stolicker stated. *Held public hearings on the reconstruction of Patterson Road from Cumber road north ? mile in Austin Township, and ? mile of Marton Road from M-46 to McAlpine Road in Lamotte Township. Road commission policies call for the townships to pay 5/6 and the road commission 1/6 on township roads. Patterson will cost a total of $35,205 and Marton $42,084. The engineers discussed the projects with a half dozen property owners and township officials, explaining everything from why they mixed the top soil from the ditches with the gravel to where they will stop the ditching. Falls also explained Tuscola County builds all their gravel roads to paved road specifications, which costs $150,000 per mile, whereas Sanilac builds a mile of road for $80,000. "A lot of times it comes down to money," added Chairman Harold Donaghy.
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