- March 19, 2015
The Winter Recovery Assistance Program will use money from the existing fiscal 2015 transportation bond authorization, according to the Baker administration. While the pothole account is separate from the Chapter 90 local road and bridge program, it will be distributed to cities and towns based on the Chapter 90 formula.
Cities and towns can seek reimbursement from the Department of Transportation for patching potholes, paving cracks, resurfacing road defects, and replacing damaged signs, guardrails, storm drains and line striping.
Cities and towns must complete the work by June 30 and submit reimbursement requests to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation by July 31, 2015. MassDOT will reimburse cities and towns as invoices are received.
“Since day one, we promised to partner with our cities and towns to provide them with the support needed to keep local infrastructure in reliable shape,” Baker said in a statement. “After an unprecedented winter of heavy snowfall and frigid temperatures, this additional support will allow municipalities to patch up potholes and address local repairs as needed.”
Municipal officials are now assessing the damage to roadways caused by the severe winter. In a visit to Newburyport and Amesbury yesterday, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito told local officials that the administration was working on a plan to help them with pothole repairs.
“This winter’s record-setting snowfall has left our cities and towns with a major maintenance deficit that needs to be addressed immediately,” Polito said in a statement today. “This program provides municipalities with additional resources to accelerate those repairs and make our roadways safer for everyone.”
Gov. Baker has also filed legislation seeking $200 million for the Chapter 90 local road and bridge program for the 2015 construction season, in addition to the $100 million in already authorized spending he released in January. The Transportation Committee has scheduled a hearing on the bill (H. 3187) Friday, with a vote planned for the same day as lawmakers work to finalize the funding for the April 1 statutory deadline.
The Chapter 90 formula determines the apportionment of funding for municipal roads and bridges based on a weighted average of a city or town’s population, employment, and total mileage of roads.
• Download Winter Recovery Assistance Program apportionment list (289K PDF)
• Download Winter Recovery Assistance Program rules and regulations (289K PDF)
- Here is the money, hope you spend it wisely
- Jeff Bennett
12) Cities and Towns will be reimbursed by September 30, 2015, for their
ReplyDeleteexpenditures pertaining to the Winter Recovery Assistance Program up to the
specified allocated amount as per the Secretary’s letter of March 19, 2015.
So where is the money jeff to pay for this work you say to spend wisely?
Would it come from the free cash we can't get? Stabilization we don't have? Pilot from Light and Water we no longer recieve? Just wonder about the glass half full of ideas. You needed to read the rest like the other things you only have time to point out. Owe and the loans we can no longer take out without a bond rate.Spend it wisely? We do the best we can with what we have to do it with. So without the extra money to spend how would we get reimbursed? So if we spend the 51,000.00 Templetons share can the money go back to the highway funds for next years budget. Do we cross our fingers like the playground money grant and hope to get it?
Dave, perhaps you should ask Bud that question or got to selectmen meeting and ask them. Then perhaps you can answer this, how many times has the road grader been broken in the last 5 years, how was it broke, what broke and how much did it cost to repair. Look for information on Asphalt recycler next week, it saves money and reuses a resource, a new concept I am sure.
ReplyDeleteGrt the new truck on capital request we won't get and we can talk about new equipment otherwise the effort is in the wind.
ReplyDeleteLike many things in town they sound great and have no end game. Ask the Audit people from our accounting team /former teams why they quit and leave the messes they have. Better yet what did we/your team spend for the results you seem to have got.The fact is Templeton allways gets the shit end of the stick in my opinion. As with the investigation vote we thought we got something for the effort put forth. I think you see what i mean.Chapter 90 money is all we have now?
Concept like when we borrowed the paver from Petersham to use the grindings on roads we repaved the best we could with the equipment we have and borrowed. Tough one to grasp too!
ReplyDelete