SPRINGFIELD — Effingham County commissioners are taking a proactive approach to get much-needed road improvements started this spring.  

Last November, voters approved a one-percent Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST). Instead of waiting for the pennies to trickle in over the next five years, commissioners approved a proposal for securing general obligation transportation sales tax bonds from Key Government Finance at a low interest rate of .793 percent. 

By securing these bonds, the county will have funds readily available to put the road improvement jobs out for bid and start construction as quickly as possible.  This plan will bring relief to the approved areas most in need of repaving and improvements in the next several months.

County Commission Chairman Wesley Corbitt stated his approval of the accelerated process and that he “looks forward to seeing the improvements made possible by TSPLOST funds.”

TSPLOST funds will augment the county’s existing resources, and will only be spent on transportation improvements. The cities of Rincon, Guyton and Springfield were responsible for determining their project lists, and Effingham County identified transportation improvements for the unincorporated areas of the county.  These proposed project lists were approved by the city councils and commissioners during their regular meetings. 

For more information about TSPLOST and the approved projects, please visit Effingham County’s website, at http://www.effinghamcounty.org/ and click on the interactive tool called TSPLOST Explorer.