TheMarshallCountyCommissioners District 1 received a grant from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission’s Unpaved Roads Program. The program “works to create a better unpaved county road system with a reduced negative environmental impact on priority water resources in Oklahoma.”
The program aims to reduce the impact of sediment and road runoff to streams, rivers and drinking water supplies and aims to reduce long-term unpaved county road maintenance costs. It is designed to give funds to counties for work on public roads with unbound road surfaces.
There are multiple criteria to receive the grant. At least one representative from each county district must have attended an Oklahoma unpaved roads course provided by the Oklahoma Conservation Commission prior to submitting a grant application.
There must be a water body listed as impaired on Oklahoma’s 303(d) list. The water body containing an aquatic species must be listed as endangered, threatened or a candidate species by the Federal Government.
The water body that was determined to be impaired must be because of turbidity or sediment. The water body must be used as a drinking source for residents and/pr must be used as an interstate waterway. The water body must be important to agricultural pastureland use and/or must be important to forestry land use.
CountyCommissionerDon “Salty” Melton attended the class and was able to apply for the grant. With the deadline looming in the not-so-distant future, Melton submitted the application and was approved.
Tony Hawkins, the Chairman of the OCC, presented Melton with a $75,000 check during the Marshall County Commissioners meeting on October 10. The grant money went toward fixing Griffin Mountain Road.
AccordingtotheOCC,“the different color rock is crushed granite that helps minimize dust for adjacent homes. This project focused on adding fill to the road base, installing a crown to shed water off the road towards the grass ditches, and gravel placement packed at an average depth of 4”. The water will leave the roadway and flow through vegetated buffers before entering the creek.”