The State of Alabama Department of Transportation (SDOT) annually allocates $500 thousand in federal transportation funds to each county. This $33.5 million is made available to counties to be used on eligible road and bridge projects.

This space in the July/August 1999 issue was used to announce that the SDOT, upon the urging of the ACCA Board of Directors, had adopted in April of that year Procedures for Distribution of Federal Aid Funds to Counties. The procedures were adopted in order that county commission members and county engineers know when federal transportation funds would be made available and the time frames within which the funds must be expended or obligated in order that they not be forfeited. The procedures were printed in that issue.

Included in the procedures is a provision which states that the SDOT is to inform the ACCA of any counties that have forfeited any of the federal funds allocated to them. The ACCA Board of Directors instructed the staff to publish the names of any such counties and the amounts forfeited. Three counties were listed as having forfeited federal funds in 1999. Listed below are the names of the counties that did not spend or obligate a portion of the federal funds by the appropriate date in 2000 along with the amounts forfeited.

Covington $ 74,234

Fayette $128,000

Lamar $252,755

It is gratifying to note that only about $469 thousand out of $33.5 million in Federal transportation Funds were not either expended or obligated within the allotted time. In all likelyhood the remaining Funds were or will be allocated for use by other counties.

It is our desire for all counties to fully utilize all Federal Funds made available to them. With this in mind we have decided to print the procedures again.

Procedures for Distribution of Federal Aid Funds to Counties

Federal funds for each Alabama county will be allocated by the Alabama Department of Transportation on October 1 of each year. Each county will have until May 1 of the following fiscal year (a total of 19 months) to deliver completed plan assemblies to the Bureau of County Transportation to utilize at least 90 percent of the funds allocated. Any county not meeting the May 1 deadline will forfeit that allocation, but will continue to be eligible for the allocation of federal funding made on October 1 of each year.

Allocation and expenditure of federal funding will follow the annual schedule set out below:

October 1: Federal funds are allocated in each county.

November 1: Department of Transportation notifies each county engineer and county commission chairman of the total federal funds available for the county, with the time frame for spending each portion.

May 1: A county forfeits its funding for the previous fiscal year unless it has delivered a completed plan assembly to the Bureau of County Transportation to expend at least 90 percent of its allocation of these funds or received written approval from the Transportation Director based on legitimate reasons for not having completed plans. This forfeited federal funding is returned to a reallocation pool to be used at the Director's discretion on other county projects.

June 1: Department of Transportation notifies the Association of County Commissions of Alabama the balance of funding remaining in the account for each county and the list of the counties which forfeit their funding on the May 1 deadline.

A county may "carry over" its federal funds under the following guidelines:

Provide a completed plan assembly, along with a letter requesting a "carry over" of federal funds by May 1 to the Bureau of County Transportation for a project that will require a level of federal funding that exceeds the balance available in the county's account. Once a completed plan assembly is received, the request to carry over the year's allocation will be forwarded to the Director of the Department of Transportation for written approval. This approval may be for a project that requires funding from the allocations in two or more years. Counties will not be allowed to carry over funds without a completed plan assembly or without written approval by the Transportation Director based on legitimate reasons for not having completed plans.

A completed plan assembly is defined as a complete set of plans ready for review and forwarding to the Office Engineer for letting to contract along with all supporting documentation required by the "Procedural Guidelines for County Projects" as published by the Bureau of County Transportation.

The members of the association's Board of Directors feel it is incumbent on every county commission to use every means to utilize all the federal funds allocated to them. These new procedures should help make that goal a reality. The procedures will also make sure that the total amount allocated for county use is ultimately expended on county projects. Appreciation should be expressed by all to Transportation Director Mack Roberts.