By Howard Greninger
TERRE HAUTE — Construction bids for the second phase of Vigo County’s Canal Road project are slated to be opened Feb. 12, with the project largely paid from a bond backed from the county economic development income tax.
The second phase includes construction of two new bridges over Thompson Ditch, plus four lanes of roadway from Ferree Road to the south side of Interstate 70.
It’s a project the County Council last year had hoped to save money on by decreasing interest payments by paying for a bond issuance in the short term — up to $14 million over five years. The council could alter that strategy based on information from a yet unfinished report from accounting firm Crowe Chizek for county commissioners.
The study will look at how much economic development income tax, or EDIT, money would be available to the county if the second phase of Canal Road is paid off over 10, 15 or 20 years, tax money that could be used as matching funds to gain federal dollars for other road projects, said Jerry Netherlain, county engineer.
“Yes you pay less interest with a shorter-term bond, but you lose federal funding because you would have no matching money” for projects five to 10 years down the road, Netherlain told the council earlier this week.
Paying off the bond at 6 percent interest for five years, the county would pay more than $2.48 million in interest; at 10 years, interest costs are more than $4.77 million; 15 years more than $7.24 million; and 20 years, more than $9.75 million.
Netherlain said Thursday the county has several road-improvement projects eligible for up to 80 percent in federal dollars.
“But in order to do that, first we have to have the design money, the money to purchase right-of-way property as needed and then our 20 percent match of local funds,” Netherlain said.
“The thing about those projects are they do not happen overnight. It takes several years to get through development, so you have to have the money now to proceed. There are environmental reports, geotechnical investigations and you have to get those in the works and have money to do that to get [construction] projects three to four years from now.”
The study is important to provide the council and commissioners with information on how to proceed with a bond, Netherlain said, as the county must have funding in place within 30 days after the second phase of the Canal Road project is bid.
Some additional improvement projects eligible for federal dollars, Netherlain said, include a $940,000 project to improve the intersection of Lafayette Avenue and Park Avenue; a $950,000 project to improve Seventh Street and Springhill Drive intersection; a $1.1 million project for intersection of Fruitridge and Haythorne avenues; $839,000 for a park at Riley Canal Lock, part of the former Wabash & Erie Canal; $750,000 to improve intersection of Fruitridge Avenue and Old Riley Road; $565,000 to widen Harlan Road from U.S. 41 to the Vigo County Industrial Park entrance; $3 million to reconstruct Harlan Road’s two lanes; and $4 million to upgrade Lafayette Avenue and add a lane from Haythorne Avenue to Hasselburger Road.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com
