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WILKES-BARRE — Gov. Tom Wolf has announced the distribution of nearly $489 million in 2018 liquid fuels payments to municipalities statewide to help them maintain local roads and bridges.
The distribution marks a $22.8 million, or 4.9 percent, increase over the $466.2 million distributed in 2017.
Luzerne County’s allocation totals $11,560,345, with Wilkes-Barre getting the most, $1.16 million.
Butch Frati, Wilkes-Barre’s director of operations, said the city’s liquid fuels budget for 2018 is $1.1 million. Of that, $220,000 is allocated for road salt.
“We are very close to that budget number now,” Frati said. “We typically budget $15,000 for temporary patching materials and we will exceed that by May.”
Frati said the city also budgets approximately $50,000 for street maintenance and paving.
“However, with the weather conditions we’ve been experiencing this winter, some of this money needs to be applied to temporary repairs and additional road salt requirements, if needed,” Frati said.
The rest of the liquid fuels budget is used for labor, equipment upkeep, line painting and lease payments for equipment.
“Although the increase in the liquid fuels line is helpful and appreciated, there are rarely funds to get through the year just doing basic services,” Frati said.
Liquid fuels allocations are annual payments made March 1 to municipalities to help pay for expenses such as snow removal and road repaving.
The money comes from the collection of the state’s gas tax.
There are 120,091 miles of public roads in Pennsylvania, with 72,933 of those miles owned by municipalities and eligible for liquid fuels.
The formula for payments is based on a municipality’s population and miles of locally-owned roads.
Municipalities must submit reports on their use of the previous year’s allocations and other information to be eligible to receive the payments.