Park County commissioners on Wednesday approved Public Works Project W2025-10 to chip-seal about 4.1 miles of County Roads 90 and 92, using a congressional discretionary appropriation and a local match from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA).

The project uses a direct congressional spending award secured by Congresswoman Diana DeGette's office (referred to in the meeting as an appropriation obtained via Congresswoman Petersen in 2023) that was administered through the Colorado Department of Transportation and included a reduction to the original award during that process. The board thanked staff and DOLA for providing matching funds that enabled the county to use the available money on County Roads 90 and 92.

"This is the direct Congressional spending grant Commissioner Mitchell got from Congresswoman Petersen in 2023. And then that was run through the bureaucratic hoops of CDOT, and ended up getting a haircut from them," the chair said. Commissioner Mitchell moved to approve the Public Works Project W2025-10 to chip-seal as much of the identified 4.1 miles as possible; the motion was seconded and passed unanimously.

Public works staff and commissioners said the work responds to a difficult summer of road conditions and thanked Road and Bridge employees for their response. The county will proceed to contract or schedule the chip-seal work under the approved project and funding.