County engineer proposes path to increase road funds

• County Engineer Bill Lozier proposed the county pursue a new TID during the May application period.
• Beech Road, Mink Street, Ohio 310 and U.S. 62 need road improvements, Lozier said.

NEWARK – Licking County Engineer Bill Lozier wants to do more than just maintain the county’s road network: He wants to improve it.

It will take money, Lozier said, and forming a Transportation Improvement District is one way to boost the county’s chances of obtaining such road funding.

Lozier proposed to the county commissioners on Tuesday that the county seek Ohio Department of Transportation approval for a new TID during its May application period.

“This is the way for a region to get a true capital improvements program,” Lozier said. “We have a need for a locally driven capital improvement program in this county.”

Some of county’s roadway needs, Lozier said, are: Beech Road from Jug Street to U.S. 62 and Mink Street, in Jersey Township; Ohio 310 from U.S. 40 to Interstate 70, in Etna Township; relieving congestion in Johnstown just west of the Ohio 37-U.S. 62 intersection; and replacing the Cherry Valley Road Bridge in Newark.

The cost is $13.5 million just to improve 18 miles of Jersey Township roads — Morse, Beech and Clover Valley roads and Mink and Jug streets. A 20 percent local share would be $2.7 million.

“We’re working hard to get the township and county roads system back on track,” Lozier said. “I think we need to have more than a maintenance program.”

The commissioners did not approve anything, but they agreed in principle with Lozier’s arguments.

In the 1990s, the county had a TID, which tried to develop funding strategies for an Etna interchange and Thornwood Boulevard projects. The TID disbanded in 1999.

“It was a different time, different leadership at ODOT, and it was a new program,” Commissioner Tim Bubb said of the previous TID effort. “ODOT thought it was going around them.

“It’s a different day. A number of counties have done these successfully and it’s not experimental any more. It actually works. We are much more primed for a TID now than we were in the ’90s.”

A year ago, ODOT stated on its website that it would award $3.5 million to TID projects for state fiscal year 2015, beginning July 1, 2014.

Aaron Underhill, attorney for developer New Albany Co., said it would support the creation of a TID if there were no assessment to property owners.

“(Companies) are making very large investments, and the possibility, no matter how remote, they may be assessed is really a red flag for them,” Underhill said.

Lozier said the law allows for an assessment, but nobody wants that or intends to impose such a tax.

kmallett@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8545

Twitter: @kmallett1958