By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – A Canadian County commissioner is seeking a grant to resurface a “dusty” road on the border of two county districts.
District 2 Commissioner Dave Anderson is applying for a Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) grant for an overlay project on Reno between Banner and Gregory roads.
“We are asking for $125,000, which would be half of the budget to overlay the road,” said Anderson, the county commission chairman.
County road funds would cover the rest of the project cost.
“About half a mile is now gravel, the other half is chip seal,” Anderson said.
“Oklahoma City just paved Reno all the way out to Gregory.”
The proposed Reno overlay project in Canadian County District 2 is along the boundary with District 3.
“That will be a great project; I’m so glad you’re doing it,” District 3 Commissioner Jack Stewart told Anderson. “I hope you win (the grant).”
The site is south of a new housing development about one mile south of Banner School.
There are homes only on the north side of this section of road, and those residents live in District 3.
“The road splits mine and (Anderson’s) districts, but he has maintenance on it,” Stewart said. “When there are south winds, I get all the calls because they’re my constituents complaining about the dust.”
APPLICATIONS DUE FRIDAY
In fiscal year 2023, the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG) will distribute a $2.7 million to communities in Canadian, Cleveland, Logan, and Oklahoma counties.
REAP grant applications are due this Friday, Oct. 28.
Grant winners will likely be notified by the end of 2022, according to Stewart.
“But then you can’t do anything until they give you a ‘notice to proceed’,” he added. “Then you have to go out for bids.”
Commissioners only recently received the notice to proceed on a REAP grant-funded asphalt road project in District 1 awarded a year ago, Commissioner Marc Hader noted.
For many years, the REAP program limited grant awards to $100,000.
That amount was increased to $125,000 this year.
All three Canadian County commissioners have utilized REAP funding to help with road improvements in their districts.
“Where we’re applying is totally rural areas,” Commissioner Stewart pointed out.
The REAP grant program was created through legislation in 1996 to improve life in rural Oklahoma.
REAP grants require no match and may fund projects such as road and street construction or repair, drainage projects, rural highway improvements, county bridge construction or repair, industrial access road construction or repair, among other specific transportation projects.
