Q:   Where does RCOC spend its money?

A:   RCOC operates with a budget in excess of $90 million. Clearly, that*$s a lot of money. However, that money gets spent very quickly when you begin to make improvements on the second largest public road system in Michigan.

More than 10% of that money is from the Michigan Department of Transportation to be used only to take care of state highways in Oakland County. These funds cannot be used on county roads.

The list below shows the many millions of dollars that were spent for various types of major road repairs and improvements in fiscal year 1998.

Road widenings $15 million

Winter maintenance $4 million

Pave gravel roads $2.2 million

Road construction $2.8 million

Road resurfacing $8 million

Pothole repair $5.4 million

Gravel road graveling & other repairs $4.1 million

Intersection improvements $4.7 million

Signal installation & maintenance $2.7 million

Shoulder graveling & grading $3.1 million

Pavement markings $1.6 million

Gravel road grading $2.1 million

Sign installation & repair $1.7 million

Asphalt & concrete repair $2.8 million

Clean & repair drain structures $1.7 million

Signal & flasher ulilities $1.4 million

Ditching & related drain impr. $1.9 million

Note the second-from-last entry: The electric bill just to run all the traffic signals and flashers is $1.4 million per year.

If you add up all the numbers, and then add the total of all the other road activities that cost less than $1 million, what you find is that the total budget is gone.

There are those who suggest that RCOC needs to do more of selected activities. This may be true, but RCOC cannot afford to do less of anything else.

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