This is a printer friendly version of an article from The Item.com
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.
Close
Article published: Jun 9, 2009 Road-widening project continues
The good news is that the Alice Drive widening is moving forward.
The bad news is that county officials and legislators still don’t know why they didn’t get stimulus money to fund it.
Phases 1 and 2 of the Alice Drive project, which would make Alice Drive five lanes wide, including a turn lane in the center and a bike path on one side, will be put out for bid on Aug. 12.
But at a Sumter Area Transportation Study meeting Monday night, Sumter Mayor Joe McElveen and others expressed their frustration at the allocation of federal stimulus money.
The group had requested about $5.5 million to fund the project, but even after being told and seeing on lists that this was the only shovel-ready project in the district, received only $1.5 million for it.
McElveen asked state Department of Transportation officials what rule or guideline had changed to cause that to happen and how other counties got money for projects that weren’t ready.
“Apparently York and Lancaster County found out how to do it,” he said. “We need an education.”
On May 5, local legislators drafted a letter to H.B. “Buck” Limehouse Jr., the South Carolina Transportation secretary, to find out who was responsible for the money being “disallowed.”
Limehouse responded on May 26, saying that the Alice Drive project was a candidate on a list that could have gotten up to $5 million, but that it wasn’t set to receive that $5 million.
But Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, said he was not satisfied with the answer, saying he still did not know what caused the change in the project’s slated funding.
Leventis said he is going to draft another letter to find out where and who the change came from.
“What we’re trying to figure out is who made the rules and why,” Leventis said. “It’s not about blame, it’s not about anything but figuring out how to do it right so we can benefit in the way that we feel is appropriate.”
The construction of Phases 1 and 2 is slated to cost about $6 million total, which will now be paid for out of other federal money that the group receives. The $1.5 million the county did receive from the stimulus will now be used to put the utilities along the road underground.
Phases 1 and 2 deal with Alice Drive from Wesmark Boulevard to U.S. 521.
Phase 3, which will soon begin the process of purchasing the right of way on the surrounding land, would take the widening from Wesmark Boulevard to Wise Drive.
Leventis said that money that is now going toward the Alice Drive project would have gone to other road projects and to fund Phase 3 of the project, which would have meant more jobs.
“That’s what we thought the money was for— to get people working right away,” he said.
Contact Staff Writer Gina Vasselli at gvasselli@theitem.com or (803) 774-1214.