MOULTRIE — Colquitt County will receive more than $4.5 million in grants and loans to resurface 10 roads covering a distance of 11 miles. The State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) awarded the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank (GTIB) loans and grants to the county and others across the state.

“So, overall, it is a win-win for the taxpayers and our entire county road and bridge network. We appreciate Governor Kemp and the State Road and Tollway Authority Board for approving these funds for our Colquitt County citizens,” said Chas Cannon, who is both Colquitt County administrator and the state representative from the area.

The award was a record $26.5 million, in total, that will help fund 13 transportation projects across the state. This latest round of GTIB awards stems from $46 million the General Assembly added to the fiscal 2025 mid-year budget.

“Thanks to conservative budgeting and strategic funding of our priorities, Georgia is not only the No.-1 state for business,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “We’re also the best state for reliable infrastructure. We’re preserving our competitive edge and reaffirming our commitment to creating opportunity in all parts of the state, especially rural Georgia.”

Cannon said the county will use the funds to front-load transportation and road projects that are scheduled for several years in the future.

“That will help save the taxpayers what would be any increases in the cost of labor and materials three to four years from now,” he said. “We will also be able to get more roads resurfaced that we don’t currently have funds for.”

He said, essentially, they were bundling a large amount of current and future road projects into one comprehensive project.

“Essentially, we’ve got about three or four years of projects planned for TSPLOST. We’re gonna try to consolidate that into one year … and do them all in one year to avoid the cost of inflation of waiting three years to do three different projects,” Cannon told the county commission at a July meeting.

He said when the county got the money, they would take it and then try to slowly pay out the TSPLOST money for the projects over a certain amount of time, which would be less than a year.

“It’s just, basically, a way to gain some interest and also reduce our inflation costs over three years. We’ll be ahead of schedule by three years on county road projects,” Cannon said.

He told commissioners that $2.5 million of the total $4.5 million was a loan with a very low interest rate that they would pay back over ten years.

“Then, $2 million is the grant. It’s a pretty good deal for us. It helps us out a lot,” he added.

Cannon said they would probably bid the projects all out together, referencing the projects that had been planned already for the next three years.

“It saves money and gets these projects sped-up over one year versus three years,” he said.

He said they had come up with a plan, several years ago, to address a couple of roads throughout the county and had already gotten all of those done.

“Stan (Stan Kirksey, Public Works Department Head) is gonna try and identify four or five more,” he said. “Identify some roads that will be eligible for CDBG (Community Development Block Grants). We’re gonna get a list. Let’s all take a look at it and then work off that list.”