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A countywide task force developing the county’s comprehensive safety action plan is requesting the public’s input on road and infrastructure issues via an online survey, according to County Engineer Josh Harvill.

Last week, many community leaders, headed by Harvill, gathered from around the county for the first task force meeting about the Chambers County Commission’s safety action plan for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant. 

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the public’s role in all this,” Harvill said during Monday’s county commission meeting.

The task force made up of members of the commission, Chambers County 911 & EMA, Chambers County Sheriff’s Office and other county staff will meet regularly throughout the year to discuss the county’s safety action plan. 

In addition to the county officials, representatives from the Chambers County Board of Education, Chambers County Development Authority, Greater Valley Area Chambers of Commerce, LaFayette Main Street, LaFayette Rotary Club, Valley Lions Club and Chambers County Extension Office are also on the task force. 

The SS4A, a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, will fund the safety action plan. The SS4A grant was awarded to over 200 communities, including Chambers County. The grant will provide access to funding for specific road safety projects within the county.

Chambers County’s grant was a joint planning grant in partnership with Autauga, Elmore and Perry Counties. The joint grant totals $640,000. Chambers County will pay $40,000 and receive $200,000 from the joint grant, like the rest of the counties. 

The grant requires the county to form a committee to develop and adopt a safety action plan to decrease road injuries or deaths within a specific timeframe. 

The commission is also tasked with contracting a consultant to help in developing the plan. Their job will be to analyze “existing conditions and historical trends that provide a baseline level of crashes involving fatalities and serious injuries across a jurisdiction, locality, Tribe, or region,” according to the USDOT requirements.

The safety plan will take into account high-risk crash zones, vulnerable communities and the severity of crashes.

At this stage, however, the task force is asking the public for their feedback about roads and infrastructure in the county that they deem as an issue. 

At the commission meeting on Monday night, Harvill announced that the task force has created a five-minute online survey for Chambers County residents to fill out. The survey can be found on the Chambers County SS4A website. 

The deadline for survey input is in November. For more information on the SS4A, visit www.bit.ly/Chambers-SS4A.