ON THE ROAD AGAIN

 
Jim Cook has a tough job. The agency he leads is responsible for upgrading and maintaining the 1200 miles of roads all over Grand Traverse County. That’s a lot of pavement.
 
While most people ask, ‘when are you going to fix my road?’ or ‘when is that construction going to end,” occasionally, someone tells Jim, “Thank you for fixing our roads and keeping us safe.”
 
When you look at what the Grand Traverse County Road Commission has accomplished over the last few years, you, too, may want to thank Jim.
 
In 2013, voters expressed their confidence in the road commission by approving a millage proposal, which allowed the commission to leverage funds to attract more road dollars to the region. Projects included Cedar Run Road, the Cass Road Bridge, Garfield Road, Williamsburg Road, Herkner Road, Keystone Road, and many others. In fact, in just three years the road commission improved the “fair-to-good” road ratings in the region from 34% to 58%. That’s a big improvement.
 
When will they fix your road? Well, that depends. They select road projects based on things like road surface conditions, safety, traffic volume and speed, historical costs, and the impact the road has on the community.
 
They don’t just randomly choose roads to fix. They follow a very clear, long-term “Asset Management Plan” that outlines the specific work needed to be done each year to ensure that the amount of roads that stays in good condition keeps growing. The plan dictates how and when they work on roads.
 
The Road Commission gets its money from federal sources, state transportation funds, and the local millage. They amount of work they do depends on how much money is available.
 
On November 8, Grand Traverse voters will be asked to renew the millage at 1 Mil per year for four years, so that they can continue to improve and maintain local streets, roads, highways and bridges.