More roads are being maintained in the city and county this year than in the past thanks to funding from the state’s Community Crossings matching grant.

Launched in 2016, the Indiana Department of Transportation grant program provides funding to cities, towns and counties across the state to make improvements to roads and bridges, according to in.gov.

In April of this year, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a long-term road funding plan into law. It earmarked revenues from new gas taxes and BMV fees for road improvements. The 10-cent gas tax increase took effect July 1.

“It was a tough road, but we made it,” District 9 Sen. Ryan Mishler said Thursday before a photo on Rieder Street in Warsaw. “I think we agreed that we had to come up with a long-term funding solution. I just think the House and the Senate had a different philosophy on how to get there, so I think we compromised in the end a little bit and made both sides happy.”

He said the key was getting money to the local communities.

“I said, ‘You can have a nice (U.S.) 31 or nice (Ind.) 65, but if County Road 17 is bad, or 500, that’s all you’re going to hear is the local people complaining about the local roads.’ So I think the key in this was the amount of money that we gave to the local municipalities – the cities, towns, counties. My mayors seem pretty happy, my county councils seem pretty happy. So I think raising the taxes is always tough, but I think if people actually see it play out in the roads, I think then they’ll know we spent all the money on the roads because all the money on that gas tax has to be used for roads,” Mishler continued.

District 18 State Rep. Dave Wolkins said, “That was the big thing: Locals have kind of been hurting in years past. ... And there’s still a lot of apprehension out in communities because they bought into raising taxes if in fact it does go to roads.”

There is a “safety valve” for the long-term road funding bill, Wolkins said.

The three most important things the legislature felt it had to cover in a recession were education, health care and child services.

“So if there is a recession – the sales tax only – the governor can take some of that money for only those three items because when we come home, while roads are important, education is still No. 1. When we come home, that’s all we hear about, with the health care and child services, so that’s the only thing the governor can do and it’s only sales tax on fuel, not the gas tax,” Mishler said.

Wolkins said it was good for people to see the money is actually going to be spent on roads.

Mayor Joe Thallemer said all the local communities are “so thankful that both sides, that the House and the Senate, spent the session getting this hopefully right. We’re very pleased. Again, we’re here to show what we’re doing with the money.”

He said it was the work of Mishler and Wolkins that made it possible, which was why he wanted them in the photo Monday.

The deadline for Community Crossings grant submissions for 2018 was July 14, with cities, towns and counties to be notified of grant awards by the end of August. Each local government unit is eligible for up to $1 million per year, with the city of Warsaw and Kosciusko County applying for the maximum amount for the second round.

For the 2016-17 asphalt season, the city applied for and received $720,000, which made a total of $1.4 million available with the city’s 50/50 match. Kosciusko County received $997,028, which made an estimated $1.9 million available with the county’s match.

In Warsaw, the grant will cover 0.96 miles of resurfacing of Main Street, which was completed in 2016; 10.9 miles of Rejuvinator (maintenance); 14.4 miles of micro-surfacing (a cost-effective method to preserve the life of pavement by applying a thin layer of asphalt); and 11.8 miles of cracksealing (maintenance), according to information provided by the city.

The work covers approximately one-third of the city’s road network with some type of road maintenance. Approximately $800,000 of the city’s $1.4 million was awarded for micro-surfacing various roads.

In the county, the grant money will cover wedge and level and paving resurfacing projects, completed from September through November in 2016. Roads addressed included Old 15 from Armstrong to Levi Lee Road; CR 350W from Old 30 to U.S. 30; and County Farm Road from CR 200S to CR 700s.

Wedge and level is when the surface of a pavement is irregular and the surface is required to be brought up to a uniform grade.

Other local awards in and around Kosciusko County for this year included: Winona Lake, $311,873; Milford, $41,911; Leesburg, $34,7119; Nappanee, $105,001; Cromwell, $17,221; Bremen, $163,410; Bourbon, $53,219; North Manchester, $127,344; and Marshall County, $1 million, according to an Aug. 25, 2016, Times-Union article.