In the past two years, Crothersville has received nearly $641,000 in state funding for paving projects. This past January the town applied for a third state Community Crossings Paving Grant.
In anticipation of being approved for a third time and to get a paving contractor locked in for what is expected to be a busy paving season with other communities and counties, the town is opting to advertise for bids before the grants are awarded sometime later this month.
That decision proved to be a wise one because the state of Indiana announced paving grant awards on Tuesday, April 7, and Crothersville will receive $206,075 to pave streets. Jackson County was granted $1,000,000 for paving.
The Crothersville paving projects include:
•Main Street Circle
•Main Street from 480 feet east of Preston Street to Main Street Circle
•Walnut Street from Preston Street to 700 feet east
•Bard Street from U.S. 31 to Seymour Road
•Walnut Street from U.S 31 to Seymour Road
•Vine Street from the terminus to Walnut Street
•Central Avenue from the terminus to Moore Street
•Cindy Lane from U.S. 31 to 80 feet west of Seymour Road
The eight projects total $275,065.
The town is using a $70,000 local match, anticipating a $206,000 grant to fund the paving project.
In 2018, Crothersville completed 14 paving projects after receiving $423,406.10 in Community Crossings funding. In 2019, the town completed 10 projects with the $217,480.80 it received.
“It has been a great program,” town engineer Brad Bender of FPBH said. “It started out they said it would be a five-year program, but now, it sounds like it will keep going.”
“Prior to these grants, we were spending about $70,000 a year,” said town council president Danieta Foster. “Now, we’re spending approximately the same amount, but we’re getting $275,000 worth of paving done.”