Delaware County approves $620,939 to catch up on paving plan

The Delaware County Redevelopment Commission approved $620,939.42 on June 11 to fund the highway department's catch-up paving work and restore the county's five-year plan.

County Engineer Dean Thomas said the county typically budgets about $1.4 million for roads (roughly $600,000 for chip-and-seal and $800,000 for paving). He told the commission that unanticipated emergency repairs and other pressures left the department with roughly $350,000 in paving funds and about $310,000 needed to finish the planned 2026 list; the commission approved the larger $620,939.42 request to both finish the current work and bring the multi-year plan back into alignment.

Thomas noted that the roads on the list have low PASER ratings ("threes and under," indicating failed, very poor or poor conditions) and stressed that catching up will allow the county to move to more preventive maintenance rather than repeated reactive repairs.

The motion to allocate the requested funding, to be drawn from several TIF accounts named in the agenda, passed unanimously by roll call.

What happens next: The highway department will proceed with the listed paving projects and the commission will track expenditures; staff said the funding will restore planned 2026 paving and allow the county to maintain planned treatments moving forward.