Santa Barbara County Public Works Director Scott McGolpin was installed as 2018-19 secretary-treasurer of the National Association of County Engineers (NACE) at its recent annual meeting and technical conference. His term runs through April.

NACE is a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional association in its 62nd year, representing some 2,400 county road officials and related professionals in the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., local roads account for about 75 percent of highways and roads, or 2.93 million miles.

Counties manage 1.74 million miles of those roads. Counties also own 231,000 bridges and operate one-third of the nation’s transit systems.

“I am honored to serve the nation’s county road professionals,” said McGolpin. “County road maintenance is like a stool standing on the legs of local, state and federal funding. Our board has ensured future local funding through their 18 percent deferred maintenance plan.

“I have worked at the state level for California funding through SB1. I look forward to working now with my colleagues across the country as we engage Congress and the administration to ensure adequate federal funding for county transportation infrastructure maintenance.”

— Lael Wageneck for Santa Barbara County Public Works.