A bill that has passed the Alabama Senate could mean extra money for local road improvement.

The Senate voted 25-10 on Thursday to pass a bill proposed by Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe, that would allocate $1 billion from the Alabama Trust Fund to build and repair roads and bridges throughout the state over the next 10 years. Local officials see this financial help as a much-needed resource,

Sen. Jim Preuitt, D-Talladega, was among those who voted in favor of the bill. He said this was brought forward at an appropriate time as many roadways in Talladega County are in need of repair and there are shortages of available funds.

“We do need these roads worked on here, and this is a step toward getting that work done,” Preuitt said.

Talladega County Commission Chairman Kelvin Cunningham said he feels the bill has appeared at the right time. He said the Talladega County Emergency Management Agency and Highway Department have recently assessed that more than 200 miles of road are in need of repair, particularly after the recent extreme winter weather conditions.

The harsh winter influenced both Preuitt’s and Cunningham’s opinions of the bill.

“It’ll certainly be a help to us. We definitely need the help,” Cunningham said.

He said this notion is especially true since Talladega County commissioners just learned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied the county’s grant requests for road repair.

“We’ve had such a bad winter, we’ve had roads come apart,” Preuitt said.

Cunningham agreed. He said that even though so many roads are in bad shape, the funds to correct them are often a hard to get.

At a recent county budget work session, it was noted that such road damages create extra problems since, being unexpectedly caused by the weather, they are not covered in the current budget.

“Even without all the extra damage we could use the money,” he said. “Anything will help us in light of FEMA denying us help.”

Cunningham said that besides having the roads in physically better conditions, the bill should help create jobs and keep current employees working.

The Alabama Trust Fund currently has $2.5 billion. Through the bill, $100 million would be taken from it every year for 10 years. This will help keep the fund from falling below $2 billion, which the bill is prohibited from doing.

The annual divisions of the state money will be divided into several categories. Some of the funds will be divided equally among the state’s 67 counties and other municipalities while other appropriations will be determined by population ratios.

While the bill passed, it was not seen as a perfect solution, even among Democrats.

Preuitt said his main hesitancy with the bill was that it does not allow for the money to be paid back to the trust fund, essentially making the funds annual grants to the various municipalities.

He said amendments were proposed on Thursday that would allow repayment, but they didn’t pass.

He reasoned that paying the money back would mean there wouldn’t be a drain on the trust fund, and this would maintain more of a safeguard on the funds for other allocations.

Preuitt said he would have strongly preferred there to be a way pay back the funds over time, even if it came down to an interest-free loan over the next 50 years.

“But that’s not was in the interest of the leaders,” he said.

The bill is currently before the House of Representatives. If it passes, it will be voted on in the general election in November.