The Rural Transportation Planning Organization that serves Washington had its purpose explained to Washington’s City Council earlier this month, mostly for the benefit of the council’s two junior members.

The RTPO operates under the umbrella of the Mid-East Commission. It was created to identify transportation needs, developing local and regional multi-modal transportation plans, provide a forum for public input in the rural transportation process, provide transportation-related information to local governments, work with those local governments to develop transportation priorities and work with the N.C. Department of Transportation regarding rural transportation projects.

“The process is a little bit different than it used to be 10 or 15 years ago,” said City Manager Bobby Roberson. “In order to get priorities for any projects that relate to transportation, you have to work through the regional planning organization. The one that has been designated for us is the Mid-East Commission. They function in that capacity. … In order to move up, we have to set the priorities locally. Then we move them up to the RPO.”

Roberson said NCDOT uses a point system to determine which recommended projects will receive funding and be completed.

“We had two (council) members, basically, Virginia and Roland, who knew very little about the RPO. It was an overall presentation on how to set the priorities, what the RPO is all about and what we need to do as a City Council to get the priorities into the RPO system,” Roberson said.

Roberson said the City Council has yet to develop a new list of transportation priorities. “I’m thinking it will be taken up during the budget process when we discuss transportation needs,” Roberson said, adding he sent information about a transportation-related meeting set for next month to council members. “I’m trying to get them introduced to the system so they’ll know what to do on the priorities on the transportation side (of the budget),” he said.

The Mid-East RPO’s area is approximately 2,000 square miles and has a population of approximately 117,500 people. In addition to the RPO, a Transportation Advisory Committee keeps local governments informed about the status and requirements to the transportation planning process.