ACCA President, Commissioner Mark Culver, devotes considerable space in his article that appears in this issue to congratulating and thanking all the individuals and organizations that supported Amendment 1 which appeared on the November 7, 2000 general election ballot. I join him in expressing appreciation. Very few times in our state's history has a proposed constitutional amendment had such broad-based support.

While the amendment would not have been ratified without broad-based support, all in the county government family: commissioners, engineers, administrators and other county employees, should be very proud of the part they played in the effort. We know for a fact that county officials and employees from throughout Alabama got out among the voters and worked tirelessly for Amendment 1.

Now that the amendment is law, county commissions must turn their attentions to the matter at hand - getting prepared to spend $250 million on bridges and in some instances on roads. Notice that I said "getting prepared to spend" and not just "spend". County commissions and their county engineers that, in anticipation of the passage of Amendment 1, have been working for months on bridge plans will be first in line to begin spending their county's share of the proceeds from the $200 million bond issue approved this year by the state legislature. Those who have not been preparing will have to wait their turn, whenever that may be. Aside from delays caused by failure to get project plans prepared and approved there is another serious factor that could delay bridge and road project performance. It is the position of the State Department of Transportation that all bridge and road projects funded with proceeds from the bond issue must be let to contract. Because there will be about 1900 bridge projects funded during the next several years, there is the real possibility that the bridge building contractors currently available in Alabama will be unable to handle all the projects in a timely manner. With all this in mind, it will be incumbant upon county commissions to make sure that their county engineer's office is properly staffed and equipped to handle the extra work that will be required. County commission members should keep in mind that the procedures approved for the expenditure of bond proceeds provide that if individual counties do not obligate all of their allocated proceeds after a certain length of time, the remaining amount will be made available to other counties. It would be sad to learn that a particular county failed to expend its allocation because of an unwillingness to assign proper resources to the county engineer's office.

It would be unfair to assume that all delays in or failure to expend bond proceeds will necessarily be the fault of county officials or employees. The Alabama Department of Transportation will also need to devote additional resources to the effort. The Director of Transportation has stated emphatically that the Department will be prepared. The head of the County Transportation Division of the Department of Transportation devoted considerable time during a recent meeting of county engineers to explaining time frames and procedures, that will be followed by the division. He made it clear that the Department is taking steps to make sure that adequate resources will be made available in order to ensure that county bridge and road projects are addressed in a timely manner.

I sincerely hope that five years from now we will proudly say that all 67 counties utilized all the bond proceeds to which they were entitled. Reaching that goal will evolve concentrated efforts on the part of the counties, the Alabama Department of Transportation, and the bridge building industry in Alabama.