By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Sometimes less is more. Counties can apply for federal funds through the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) for road and bridge projects on county roads. Federal monies come in but with plenty of strings attached. That's where the KDOT exchange comes in. County Engineer Barry McManaman presented a request to approve the exchange during Wednesday's Barton County Commission meeting.
"The full share of federal funds would be $190,617.71," he said. "If we wanted to use that full amount, we'd have to have a project approved and designed using all federal requirements. However, the exchange is the state will give us 90 percent of that amount, and then we would have the freedom to use it without all the federal restrictions and requirements."
The commission approved the exchange, which will give the county $171,555.94. McManaman said even with the lesser amount, the funds could go to more than one project without all the federal requirements. A simple overlay, for example, may require various changes to side slopes, signage, and guardrails if using federal standards.
"We have guardrail, for example, that was put in decades ago," McManaman said. "It doesn't meet current standards. If you were to go out and design a project now, you'd have to have a lot more lead-in distance on the guardrail, safety terminal ends, and things like that. It would be a huge-dollar project for the county to go out and continually upgrade guardrail on all these small structures we have."
Using the state dollars, the county can also avoid the tight September deadline required for a federal project.