ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Certifying Seward County’s commitment to end traffic fatalities and serious injuries in the county and implementing the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Plan, county commissioners recently voted unanimously to adopt a resolution approving a Vision Zero Policy for the county.
Administrator April Warden said that move came after Seward County had joined local governments in the region, including the cities of Liberal, Oberlin, Oakley, Scott City and Garden City and the counties of Decatur, Logan, Scott, Finney and Haskell in making an application for an SS4A plan.
“This was for a planning grant to be from the U.S. Department of Transportation to create compliant action plans,” she said.
Warden said such a plan allows government entities to apply for grants such as the Kansas Department of Transportation’s High Risk Rural Roads program. C.W. Harper of Kirkham Michael & Associates, the county’s road consulting firm, said a plan allows for applications for the USDOT’s Safe Streets For All Action and Demonstration grants program.
“It’s just required for federal,” Harper said. “You were already okay for the state side. This is the federal side, which is typically much bigger project. The HRRR usually caps out at around $1 million, $2 million for a project. This one here, I see $20 milion or $30 million.”
Warden said meetings took place with officials from the government entities that applied for SS4A program, and she added Harper also represents other entities besides Seward County.
“He was a great asset in this, but they met with us as a group, and then they met with us as individual counties and cities to find out what some of our needs were,” she said. “In the draft of the information, it identified certain areas in our county we felt needed some safety measures addressed. That can be done in various ways from what we needed, whether it be culverts, street signs or rumble strips. Those are just examples.”
Warden said adoption of Resolution 2025-11 was needed by the end of June for a Vision Zero Plan for Seward County, and the commission voted unanimously to approve the resolution at its June 16 regular meeting.
