By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Cass County Road Commission spends about $715,000 a year maintaining primary roads - a sum expected to erode in years ahead.
How that money is spent is increasingly decided by mouse clicks using special computer software, as Engineer Joseph Bellina demonstrated April 14 for about 85 people attending the Board of Commissioners' 14th annual Intergovernmental Forum at Southwestern Michigan College.
For his demonstration using Newberg Township's $45,000 road appropriation, Bellina plugged in 25 years of data to the computer.
Robert Powers, chairman of the Road Commission, said, "This program is going to help townships determine what they want to do and whether or not there might be a possibility of doing a township millage for roads. The board is of the opinion it would be very, very difficult to sell a countywide millage. But by a township basis, the township citizens can know that money is going to be spent in their township."
Engineers have known for some time that highways degrade at a certain rate.
Michigan developed such a program to squeeze every monetary morsel from limited transportation funds to maintain the system.
On a color-coded scale of 1 to 10, red denotes the most deplorable.
Green, 6, designates some form of surface rehabilitation.
Blue roads don't need much more than crack sealing.