Jefferson County receives grant to pave road from Packwood to Pekin

PACKWOOD – Packwood and Pekin schools will finally be connected by a paved road.

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Iowa Sen. Adrian Dickey visited the Jefferson County Engineer’s Office on Thursday, Feb. 5 to share the news that federal funding had been secured to pave 4 miles of 110th Street between Packwood and Pekin schools to the west.

Though Pekin is tucked just inside the northwest corner of Jefferson County, it has never been possible for the county’s residents to visit the school on a fully paved route without leaving the county, such as by heading north and connecting to Highway 78 in Keokuk County. Thanks to this $3 million grant, that is about to change.

“This funding has been signed into law by the President and is on its way to pave the road leading to the Pekin Community School District, improve safety during Iowa winters, support grain transport to Packwood, and strengthen the local economy,” Miller-Meeks posted to her Facebook account.

Dickey wrote in his weekly column “The Dickey Dispatch” that he has been working with Miller-Meeks’ office for five years to obtain funding to pave the “Pekin road.”

“This gravel road carries half of the traffic that goes to the entire Pekin K-12 school complex,” Dickey wrote. “I doubt there is another school in the state that has that traffic to get to their school via gravel.”

Pekin Superintendent Dave Harper attended the Monday, Feb. 9 meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors, and told them how much the upcoming paving of 110th was a “blessing” for the district.

“This adds another layer of safety and access to our community to get to school, and especially our extracurricular activities, when the majority of [the other] schools are coming from our south,” Harper told The Union.

Jefferson County Engineer DeWayne Heintz remarked, “I can’t give enough credit to Representative Miller-Meeks and her staff for helping us get this across the finish line.”

Heintz said that, though the funding for the project is now in place, actual paving won’t commence until the summer of 2027 at the earliest and possibly not until 2028. He said the federal government has about 7,000 grants to write, and getting the paperwork in order could take a year, which is how long it took to finalize paperwork on the last federal grant the county received.

The soon-to-be-paved road will closely resemble the paving the county performed on South 32nd Street on the west edge of Fairfield. Heintz said the road will be 30 feet wide, including 4-foot paved shoulders on each side.

The $3 million grant from the federal government will cover 80 percent of the cost, with the remaining 20 percent coming from local matching funds.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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