Steuben County Council approves $1.65 million LOIT appropriation for road repairs

Steuben County Council voted June 14 to appropriate $1,646,577.17 from the LOIT Special Distribution Fund (Fund #1229) for road repair, construction and materials.

The request came from Jennifer Sharkey, the county’s Highway Engineer, who said the funds will be used for materials for road work and that any unspent amounts can be encumbered into the next fiscal year. “This will help to get us to approximately 90% to 96% recovery rate,” Sharkey said. Richard Shipe questioned whether the council needed to appropriate the entire amount up front; Sharkey replied it is unlikely the department will expend the full sum in 2016 and unspent funds can be carried forward.

Council member Dan Caruso asked whether the budgeted amount covered materials or included equipment; Sharkey confirmed the appropriation is for materials only and does not include machinery. The council approved the appropriation on a motion by Ken Shelton, seconded by Wil Howard. The motion carried with six ayes.

The appropriation was entered to Fund #1229, line 4000.01 for road repair/construction/equipment for the highway department. The council raised procedural questions about appropriating the full balance at once but accepted the highway engineer’s assurance that remaining funds could be encumbered if not spent in the current year.

Next steps: the highway department may encumber unspent funds into the next budget year; no additional formal conditions or amendments were recorded in the meeting minutes.