Local communities will be able to complete a number of road projects, thanks to the latest round of Community Crossings matching grants. The Indiana Department of Transportation officially released the list of grant recipients in the January 2020 call for projects Tuesday.
Locally, Starke County was awarded the maximum $1 million grant. That will help upgrade two roads from chip seal to hot mix asphalt, according to a Starke County Highway Department press release. Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler previously said he planned to upgrade County Road 250 North from Range Road to U.S. 35 and Range Road from Toto Road to State Road 10.
Pulaski County was awarded $397,500 to replace the bridge on County Road 400 East over Mill Creek. The Town of Hamlet got just over $148,000 to resurface Division Street from Railroad to Terry streets and install a sidewalk to tie in to a planned memorial walking path in the Town Park.
The Town of North Judson received just over $147,000 to repave Franklin Street from Sycamore to Main Street and Main Street from Park Avenue to Oakwood. That was initially going to be funded as part of the town’s wastewater project, but using the Community Crossings money allows for more extensive paving work to be done and frees up project funding for other uses.
Each town or county will have to cover the remaining 25 percent of the cost of each of these projects. The state awarded a total of more than $126 million in this round of the Community Crossings program.
