Projects funded

Get ready for some road work.

Indiana Department of Transportation on Tuesday announced a total of $2.19 million in Community Crossings grants awards for road work in Jay County, Portland, Dunkirk and Redkey.

“That is definitely good news,” said Jay County Community Development director Ami Huffman, who applied for the grants on behalf of the municipalities. County engineer Dan Watson handled the application for Jay County. “And that gives us during this down time a chance to get ready to bid so that when this breaks we’ll be ready to go.”

All Community Crossings projects require a 25% local match.

All of the roads and streets involved were selected based on asset management plans, which evaluate which are most in need of repair.

The largest of the four grants this year is $1 million for Jay County for paving almost all of Como Road. The road, which runs at a southeast to northwest angle on the west side of the county, will be paved from county road 50 South to the Randolph County line.

INDOT’s grant to Portland came in at $677,973.75.

“I’m glad we’ve got it,” said Portland Mayor John Boggs. “We got everything we asked for. We’re looking forward to getting our streets paved.”

The funding will help the city pave sections of nine streets:

•Main Street between Meridian and Middle streets

•Middle Street between Votaw Street and Blaine Pike

•High and Race streets between Meridian and Park streets

•Arch Street between Morton and Boston streets

•The entirety of Green Park Drive

•Hayes Street between Water and Votaw streets

•Boston Street between Arch and Votaw streets

•Glen Street between Votaw and North streets

Portland’s match for the work will be $225,991.25.

“Because the state gives us so much, we only have to match a little bit of it,” said Boggs. “So we get quite a bit back for what we put into it. It enables us to do a lot more than we’d ever be able to do on our own.”

INDOT awarded $291,210 in Community Crossings funds to Dunkirk for paving seven streets. The city’s match will be $97,070.

Dunkirk Mayor Jack Robbins had prepared himself for the state to pull back on such funding given the coronavirus pandemic, so he was thrilled to learn Tuesday that the funding came through.

Dunkirk’s paving will include two sections of Indiana Street — between Ohio and Center streets, and between Railroad and Grant streets.

Other streets slated to be paved are Center Street between Broad Street and its west end at Dunkirk Moose Lodge; North Street between Meridian and Broad streets; Railroad street between Main and Broad streets; Franklin Street between Lincoln and Oak streets; and the entirety of Chestnut Street.

“I’m tickled to death,” said Robbins. “Anything that we can get over here in Dunkirk that helps with the streets, that just puts us farther ahead.”

The Community Crossing grant work will be in addition to INDOT’s planned work on Indiana 167 from Indiana 67 to the north side of Dunkirk. A pre-construction meeting for that project is scheduled for next week.

In addition to paving that stretch of state highway, there will also be “bump outs” — curb extensions that narrow the crossing distance for pedestrians — at the intersection of Main and Commerce streets in Dunkirk. Those were agreed upon as part of a compromise to keep the traffic light at that intersection in place while making the sidewalks compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“Dunkirk’s going to be a busy little town this summer for a while,” Robbins said.

Community Crossings funding for Redkey came in at $120,000, with a $40,000 local match.

Those dollars will cover paving for two sections of Main Street — between Railroad and Sycamore streets, and between Union and Meridian streets. Also to be paved as part of the project are High Street between George and Butler streets, and Butler Street between High and Bell streets.

The grants awarded Tuesday come on the heels of more than $2 million in Community Crossings paving projects in the county last year, including one that saw every street in Salamonia get paved.

Other work completed via the grants last year included paving of New Mount Pleasant Road between county road 200 South and Como Road, all of Bridge Street, Meadow Lane, Hickory Court and Rayburn Drive in Portland, and paving and sidewalk improvements for Commerce, Washington and Lincoln streets in Dunkirk.

The county used economic development funds from the Bluff Point Wind Energy Center project to help municipalities with the local match for those projects.