ALLEN COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - The Lima Allen County Regional Planning Commission has been selected by Governor Mike DeWine to become one of seven regional transportation planning organizations in the state.
The newly formed West Central Ohio Rural Planning Organization, or WORPO, will serve Auglaize, Hancock, Hardin, Mercer, Van Wert, Putnam, and Wyandot counties. This organization can give rural counties outside of the Allen County Metropolitan Planning Organization funding and resources for transportation projects and allow multi-jurisdictional collaboration.
The process of getting this designation took two years but will now give rural counties an opportunity to finance more road projects.
"What instigated the need for the RTPO was that we noticed the seven surrounding counties were underserved, as far as funding and resources goes, to address the unique needs such as road widening for farm equipment that share the road with regular traffic, things like that. They just weren't able to access those funding and resources the MPO has access to, so becoming a part of the RTPO will now integrate them into that," explained Colleen Barry, RTPO manager and senior planner for the Lima-Allen County Regional Planning Commission.
The biennial allocation is still being set for the RTPOs across the state, and Barry says they will divide that up for various maintenance projects across the counties. She includes they will work on safe streets for all grants, which will focus on roadways with high incidents and funds for safety improvement.
