If you have traveled south on Orange Hill Road in Washington County, Florida recently, you have seen the 1/2 mile or so of newly-paved road surface, the beginning of a new, County-funded road maintenance program of which Washington County Commissioners are proud.
‘This is the first time that Washington County has paved a county road using monies from the general fund’, said Washington County Commissioner Todd Abbott on Friday, August 31, during a tour of the new project.
Typically Washington County has used grant monies to improve roads within the county, but recently the Board of Commissioners in Washington County has made some exciting changes to the way they do business.
‘We now work from a balanced budget’, said Abbott on Friday, as he watched a crew install sod along the new Orange Hill Road pavement, ‘something I promised going into office nearly eight years ago, and, with the hard work of Commissioner Chair Tray Hawkins and the other sitting commissioners, we have succeeded in also putting into place a plan to make the County debt-free in the next year, something about which we are truly excited’.
As a result of the newly-gained control of the County finances, the balanced budget and the improvement in the budgeting process, Washington County has commenced a new program designed to improve roads by using County manpower and equipment to build the road base, then contracting by bid process the asphalt application.
Long a point of contention to those who live on the south end of Orange Hill Road, the road has been difficult to maintain, subject to damage from heavy rains such as those experienced this Summer.
‘This is just the start, and we see better days ahead for Washington County’, said Abbott. ‘and looking forward, we are building a way of doing business in Washington County, including the financing and building of roads, of which all Washington County residents will be proud’.
