Linn County officials have proposed three paving projects in outlying areas in case the federal government sends money to state and local governments next year as a way to stimulate the economy.

But Roger Nyquist, chairman of the county board of commissioners, says the biggest need is not repaving but a widening of Interstate 5 through the mid-valley and fixing the interchanges at Knox Butte and Highway 20 in Albany.

The freeway work would cost tens of millions of dollars and take years to get started, even though it’s listed as the top priority by the Area Commission on Transportation, a regional group.

For the potential stimulus package, local officials have been asked to submit projects that can be started and completed in 2009. That means they cannot involve any right of way acquisition or environmental evaluations.

“We don’t agree with the process,” Nyquist said this week. “But we are engaging the process.”

ODOT has asked for nominations of road projects in case federal funding becomes available to local governments.

Roadmaster Darrin Lane said the county submitted these:

• Overlay Stayton-Scio Road from Stayton to Scio at an estimated cost of $1.5 million.

• Overlay Gap Road south of Brownsville, $500,000.

• Overlay Lyons-Mill City Drive. This project would include repairing and repaving S.E. Linn Boulevard and Broadway in Mill City, $1.2 million.

“These projects represent about $3.2 million in infrastructure work and will likely exceed any amount allocated to Linn County,” Lane wrote in a note to the Democrat-Herald.

“The primary reason we are submitting only paving projects is because of the requirement that the projects be ready for construction during summer 2009.”

Lane said it would be virtually impossible to have ready any project that requires environmental permitting or acquisition of right of way.

Democrat-Herald