NORWICH – Chenango County is competing with New York State for the same pot of federal money allocated for highway and bridge repair projects in Region 9, and the fate of the Main Street Bridge in Oxford hangs in the balance.

Chenango County Department of Public Works Director Randy Gibbon reported in late October that major portions of federal money previously allocated to regions for locally-administered projects would be held back by the state. The cut-back for Chenango would total $11.5 million over five years, including the estimated $3.2 million span over the Chenango River as well as planned improvements to county Routes 35, 32 and 34.

Now, after several conversations with state DOT personnel, Gibbon said the 56-year old bridge may be back on the list for replacement in December 2009.

“That’s with an emphasis on ‘maybe,’” he said before a meeting of the Public Works Committee last week.

Gibbon questioned how the state could de-obligate projects that have been on the books for years and a portion of federal funds have already been expended on them. Chenango County paid $200,000 for an engineering study of the Oxford bridge’s replacement. In addition, foundation cracks were repaired in 2006.

Federal law states that projects must be completed within a specified time period, the DPW director said, and, if exceeded, the money expended would have to be paid back.

“We are not stopping the project, the state is taking us off the list,” said Gibbon.

When reached for comment Friday, a Region 9 representative said the state had adopted “a new concentration on bridge safety,” but could not say whether the Oxford bridge would be funded. On Monday, a NYSDOT representative said the Main Street Bridge was never eliminated from the list in the first place.

“It was always on the program. This has always been something they had intended to do,” said NYSDOT Communications Department spokesman Charles Carrier.

Carrier said the NYSDOT “has a role to play” in cutting the state’s budget, however, and cuts were being made to all regions.

“The governor made it clear in a budget bulletin at the beginning of the month that the state is in a very difficult financial situation. And DOT has a role to play. We will concentrate on safety maintenance to our core system. Other projects that don’t fall into that context may be differed. We are trying to work through that program, with safety in mind first,” he said.

Contrary to what Gibbon initially reported to committee last month, DOT regions across New York are not being cut uniformly. In Region 9, which includes Chenango, counties have no say in how many federal dollars state roadway and bridge projects in the region receive. In more heavily populated, urban areas, such as Region 4 in Rochester, counties have a municipal planning organization that decides how much state roads and bridges, county roads and bridges, etc. will receive in the region.

“It looks like regions with municipal planning organizations that serve large numbers of people will keep more (federal dollars) than regions like ours where we don’t have them,” Gibbon said.