Commission Seeks ATRIP Money

By Glenn Collins
Tuesday, June 26, 2012 | 9:06 AM
https://hbtv.us/news/?story_id=1155

The Winston County Commission, Monday, accepted the bid of First National Bank for a $1.7 million loan. The money will be used to pay off the county's bond issue and to match a $3 million Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program grant. The ATRIP grant totals $3 million, with a the county match of $600K. The grant application has been filed, the county is awaiting ALDOT's decision.

The ATRIP grant is for major collector roads. There are several of these roads, classified as such by a high volume of traffic, that are in poor shape. The ATRIP dollars will be used to fix the collector roads. County Commissioner David Cummings said, "We are going to take this (grant) money to pave these (collector) roads that in poor condition. Money previously being used to patch these major roads will now be free to use on other roads."

The 7-cent bond issue has a remaining balance of approximately $800k. With this restructuring of the debt, from bond obligation to a loan obligation of 7 years at 2.2-percent, there is a neutral effect on cost of debt service for the county.