News & Notes October 2004

ACTION ALERT
Increased Funding for Dirt and Gravel Roads Program

Over the past several years, PACD members have been asking the PACD to seek an increase in funding for the Dirt and Gravel Roads Program (DGRP). Funding for the DGRP comes from gas taxes, as set out in Section 9106(b) of the PA Vehicle Code.

During the 2003 PACD Fall Meeting, the PACD Executive Council passed the following resolution: "PACD supports an increase in funding for the Dirt and Gravel Roads Program through the gas tax."

PACD has joined forces with the Keystone State Transportation Funding Coalition to seek increased funding for the DGRP but we need your help.

PACD members need to take action now. The gas tax legislation only opens up for amendments once about every six to eight years for an extremely short window (sometimes only as little as one day). The gas tax legislation may open in November offering an opportunity for an increase in funding for the Dirt & Gravel Roads Program (DGRP). A sum of $12 million is being requested for the program. This amount of funding would drop the current completion time for all identified projects from 47 years to 15 years. For this reason we need to voice our needs and present our justification for additional funding now.

ACTION NEEDED:
PACD needs your help to contact your legislators to make them aware that an increase in DGRP funding is needed and justified for conservation districts. Legislators need to know that PACD supports an increase in funding for transportation programs and that conservation districts and local road maintenance will benefit when DGRP receives increased gas tax funding. Please take time to speak with your state legislators (both House and Senate members) about the impact that the program is having on improved road maintenance and sediment pollution prevention in your county.

Consult the PACD website for talking points and tools to use when speaking to legislators. Please follow-up with PACD Executive Director Susan Marquart after you meet or talk with your legislators so PACD knows which legislators have expressed support or will not support an increase in transportation funding for DGRP. Susan can be reached at (717) 238-7223 or susan-marquart@pacd.org.

PACD Receives $600,000 from USDA-NRCS

Since its inception in 2001, PACD's engineering technical assistance program has provided valuable engineering technical assistance as a free service to conservation districts and other eligible entities for Growing Greener and 319 projects.

During the past year, PACD developed an Engineering Task Force to investigate how PACD can continue its engineering technical assistance program with uncertain funding from the Growing Greener program. The Task Force recommended that PACD diversify grant funding for the engineering technical assistance program. The Task Force's report was approved at the PACD Executive Council meeting in July 2004.

In following through with the recommendations from the report, PACD recently obtained $600,000 in matching funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service for the engineering technical assistance program to assist in the implementation of conservation practices in Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans throughout Pennsylvania. The expands the engineering technical assistance services that PACD provides to conservation districts and other organizations to include nutrient management.

Information on the engineering technical assistance program is available on the PACD website, http://www.pacd.org/products/tech_asst.htm. More information will be posted as it becomes available.