A major part of projects that the Guthrie County Secondary Roads Crew undertakes is funding.

County Engineer Josh Sebern recently updated the Board of Supervisors on an application that he and five other County Engineers are trying to secure jointly. He says that it’s a very competitive federal grant, as many states, counties and cities are all applying for some of the federal funding. Sebern adds that the coalition of Iowa counties applied for this grant looking at work on farm to market roads. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that even though federal grants are so competitive, there’s already been some success in Iowa.

“It’s definitely something worth going after. We have had some success as countries in these grants. We’ve been awarded another one for bridges. Guthrie County was not in that application, but it’s nice to see those successes to keep the interest up and to draw more of these federal dollars into Iowa and help offset some of these construction costs we’re seeing.”

Sebern mentions that the application is for $29 million, and would be used to improve those farm to market roads to help freight routes for businesses and individuals that ship product. In Guthrie County, the road he’s looking to use the funding to work on, should the grant be awarded, is White Pole Road from Highway 25 to the Dallas County border.