MONTGOMERY— Winston County will soon smooth out a couple of rough roads with the help of a $346,941 Community Development Block Grant awarded by Gov. Robert Bentley.
The grant to the County Commission will fund a project to rebuild and resurface 3.8 miles of County Road 37 near the town of Lynn and 2.3 miles of County Road 40 near the town of Arley. The roads haven’t been resurfaced in more than 20 years and are full of potentially dangerous potholes, ruts and crumbling surface.
“Community Development Block Grants enable progress on vital projects that local governments would otherwise be unable to complete,” Bentley said. “I am pleased to work in partnership with community leaders in Winston County to upgrade and repair these roads for the safety of the motorists who use them.”
County officials said that the portions in the project area have deteriorated to such a narrow and rough state that they pose a potential danger to motorists and vehicles.
School buses have been unable to travel parts of County Road 40 to pick up and drop off students near their homes, forcing parents to travel twice a day to transport children from a busy intersection of County Road 40 and County Road 77. The rough conditions also delay first responders as they travel to emergencies at households and other areas along the roads, which are traveled by up to 450 cars a day.
The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grant from funds made available by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The county will contribute $286,404 in in-kind labor and services toward the project.
ADECA Director Jim Byard Jr. was in Winston County on Thursday and traveled to Double Springs to personally inform County Commission Chairman Roger Hayes that Bentley had approved the grant.
“ADECA’s Community Development Block Grants are important investments in the quality of life for Alabama communities,” ADECA Director Jim Byard Jr. said. “This year, ADECA received 108 applications for projects that support economic and community development. We were able to award 54 projects totaling $17.5 million in investments. I am proud of the projects chosen this year, especially this project to benefit the residents of Winston County.”
ADECA administers an array of programs supporting law enforcement and traffic safety, economic development, energy conservation, workforce development, water resource management and recreation development.
Contact Mike Presley or Jennifer Ardis