Seward County will receive an additional $1 million in federal funds toward the paving of 420th Road between Interstate 80 and Highway 34.
Seward County Commissioner Raegan Hain said Feb. 5 that she was contacted by U.S. Rep. Mike Flood’s office to confirm the $1 million allocation that was among his priority projects was included in one of the spending bills approved by the Senate and now signed into law.
“We are chipping away slowly but surely,” Hain said of the county’s efforts to fund the remainder of the paving project.
Hain said she appreciates the support Flood and Sen. Deb Fischer have offered to the project in recent years. The county received a $3 million allocation in 2024 to begin engineering, environmental studies and other preparation for the 5.5-mile paving project.
Fischer had included $4 million in funding that was expected to be finalized in early 2026, but that was among $100 million in Nebraska projects cut last spring.
The appropriation advanced by Flood was originally part of the larger controversial budget bill from which allocations for the Department of Homeland Security were spun off on their own last week.
Hain said Flood attempted to restore the entire $4 million the county had expected in federal funding last year, but the amount was whittled down.
Commissioners recently approved a $23,750 contract with Sunflower Grant Writers to write and submit a grant proposal for the 2025 Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) funding. This fund comes through the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The federal allocation will now lower the funding the county needs to finish the project with grants to $3,463,647, Hain said.
The proposal for Flood’s allocation also included a commitment that the county would fund less than $100,000 of the remaining project, she said. Hain has said much of that may be through in-kind credit for work completed by county employees.
The county has used a $3 million federal allocation received in 2024 for preparatory engineering and planning for paving the 5.5-mile stretch of road. It recently had environmental reports finalized which makes the construction portion of the project ready to go when funding is available.
Flood’s office shared with the Seward County Independent a list of projects in Flood’s appropriation request. The 420th Road project was the only one from Seward County included.
