HERMANN — The Gasconade County Commission Thursday morning authorized an effort by the region’s planning agency to seek grant funds to hard surface a portion of Tappmeyer Road.

Staff members of Meramec Regional Planning Commission (MRPC) met with county administrators during their weekly session to discuss a Community Development Bloc Grant (CDBG) program that makes funding available to counties looking to upgrade roads in areas that meet low-income thresholds determined by U.S. Census figures.

In addition to a half-mile section of Tappmeyer Road, a few hundred yards of Cemetery Road near Bland also would be included in the grant application. This road runs into Bland, but it is owned and maintained by county government.

County officials had hoped to include Bem Church Road in the CDBG application, but MRPC’s Kelly Sink, who oversees the grant application process, said that road does not qualify for the funding.

CDBG money for roads and highways typically has been limited to municipalities. However, some of that money is starting to be made available to counties. The CDBG program came about several decades ago when the federal government combined several different grant programs ( a “bloc” of programs) under a single umbrella that required one application to be filed rather than multiple applications for individual uses — housing, winterization projects, street improvements, sewer upgrades and so forth.

Sink said if successful, the improvements to the county roads might not take place for a while. “It might be next year that you do the work,” she said.

Jerry Lairmore, commissioner for the county’s southern end, said county government’s hope is to give the hard-surfaced street to Bland – along with other streets maintained by the county that run into some of the county’s other municipalities. “Once that’s done, we’d like to turn over the whole street to the city,” Lairmore said.

As for Bem Church Road, Lairmore said improving that road — most likely with a chip-and-seal coat — would be a substantial project.

“That’s going to be an expensive road. That’s why we haven’t done it so far,” the associate commissioner said. That’s why the county had hoped to apply for CDBG money to finance an upgrade, he added.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, lobbied the MRPC Executive Director Bonnie Prigge, one of four planning agency staffers attending the County Commission session, for improvements to Highway 19 through Gasconade County. Upgrades to the highway will be needed to accommodate the expected increased traffic generated by an industrial megasite being developed in Montgomery County through the Greater Montgomery County Port Authority.

Schulte said it’s expected that product from the megasite will be hauled down Highway 19 to Interstate 44. He suggested the planning agency begin thinking about ways to “beef the highway up” in advance of the development of the megasite.

In other matters during last week’s Commission session, four engineering firms responded to the county’s Request for Qualifications to perform engineering services on the county’s portion of the Rock Island Trail. Responding to the request were Hutchison Engineering, Howe Engineering, TWM Engineering and Archer-Elgin Engineering.

“We’ll study them and take them under advisement,” said Schulte.

Also received for Thursday’s session were two bids for a new road graders — one from a John Deere dealer for $397,595 and one from Caterpillar dealer Fabick for $357,702. The bids will be reviewed by the Gasconade County Road Department to ensure they meet the necessary requirements. The Road Department will make a recommendation to the Commission, which could award a contract at this week’s session.