Executive Director's Report - Convention
Issue 2003
Eight Counties Forfeit Portion of
Federal Funds
The State of Alabama
Department of Transportation (SDOT) annually allocates
$500,000 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.
In April of 1999, in response
to urging from the ACCA Board of Directors, the SDOT adopted
Procedures for Distribution of Federal Aid Funds to
Counties. The procedures were previously published
in the July/August 1999 issue of The County Commissioner.
The procedures were adopted so that county commission
members and county engineers would be aware of when federal
transportation funds would be made available and the time
frame within which the funds must be expended or obligated
in order that they not be forfeited.
Included in the procedures
is a provision that the SDOT inform the Association of
all counties that forfeited the allotted federal funds.
The ACCA Board of Directors instructed the Association
to publish the names of any such county and the amount
forfeited.
Eight counties forfeited federal
funds in 2003. Listed below are the names of the counties
and the amount forfeited because the money was not spent
or obligated by the appropriate date.
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Chilton County
Fayette County
Greene County
Madison County
Marengo County
Perry County
Pickens County
Wilcox County |
$453,091.78
$76,058.99
$177,265.95
$837,656.59
$65,040.14
$1,022,750.58
$231,123.23
$180,537.68 |
While it is disappointing that some counties
did not use all of the allocated funds, it is gratifying
to note that only $3.8 million out of $33.5 million was
not either expended or obligated within the allotted time.
In all likelihood the remaining funds have already been,
or will be allocated for use by other counties.
It is the desire of the Association that all counties
fully utilize the federal funds made available to them.
With that in mind, the procedures are reprinted below.
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 fund
- ing that exceeds the balance available in the county's
account. Once a completed plan assem- bly 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 hav- ing 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 upon every county commission
to use every means to utilize the federal funds allocated.
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