Town moving forward with plans to adopt county road

The town of Hope is moving forward with a plan to adopt the second half of a county road.

At the Hope Town Council's November meeting, town attorney Scott Andrews updated the council on the project to annex County Road 775E.

He said that Bartholomew County Commissioners had agreed to the town's petition to annex the road. As it stands the town has control of the town side of the road, but the thin strip of road to the east is under county control. The major section under question is just to the east of Hauser Jr. Sr. High School and Hope Elementary. The split jurisdiction issue complicates issues ranging from future development and road paving to snow removal.

The Town Council started a process several years ago to annex the entire road. Andrews pointed out that there is another section of County Road 775E further north that does not border any town property. Another tenth of a mile section, in addition to Hauser Drive, does border the town and he suggested the council consider annexing that also. A special meeting was scheduled for last week to discuss those separate sections and iron out the town's plan.

The next steps include a public hearing, followed by a meeting for the council to approve the ordinance, likely in January.  The town would also need to submit a financial plan to the state on how it plans to pay for services to the section of the roadway, Andrews said.

In other updates presented at the Nov. 19th Hope Town Council meeting:

• Trena Carter, of Administrative Resources Association, updated the council on the owner occupied housing repair program, saying that seven homes in the town have been completed. The town had originally sought the grant funding for 10 homes, but was only approved for five. However, the repairs came in cheaper than anticipated, allowing two more homes to be completed.
• Steve Robertson with Strand Associates updated the council on the the community crossing grant repaving projects. He said that the recently completed paving project with 2018 funds actually came in about $10,000 less than originally budgeted. Robertson said there will be meetings in December to begin working with the state on next year's projects being funded by the 2019 approved grants. He said Strand expects to return to the council with its contract for engineering services on the project in December. As part of the grant-funded projects, the state requires the town to put maintain and update an inventory of streets and their current conditions, Robertson said. The best maintained roads are not eligible for repair funding through the state, Robertson said.