County to seek $280M from feds
By Ryan Smith, News-Leader
Nassau County has requested nearly $280 million in federal funding for infrastructure projects. County officials hope to take advantage of President-elect Barack Obama's plan to invest billions in public works projects.
At the direction of the Nassau County Commission, County Coordinator Ed Sealover identified more than 20 projects that were "shovel-ready" - one of the key criteria for receiving federal funds. Another, Sealover told the commission Dec. 22, is that proposed projects get dollars into the community. "One of the criteria here is jobs: would it put people to work?" he said.
Sealover said the largest part of the county's funding request is aimed at road improvement. "Right now we're looking at about $250 million in roads and bridges," he said Tuesday. "The largest of that is $233 million related to A1A."
Another sizable chunk of the county's funding request is directed to the sheriff's office. Should the request be approved, $23.1 million would be spent on constructing a new administrative building, 911 offices, a vehicle maintenance facility and a fueling station.
Smaller amounts have been requested for water treatment improvements, the remodeling or repair of fire stations, recreation, mass transit, housing and environmental projects.
The big question now, Sealover said Tuesday, is when and how the federal government will distribute money to fund Obama's proposal. "They're still having this debate over the stimulus itself at the federal level," he said. "Then you have folks at the county and municipal levels saying, 'Don't give the money to the state, give it directly to us or we might not get our fair share.' Then the state says, 'Give it to us and we'll parcel it out.' There are a lot of moving parts to this system. ... They're talking about so many billions for infrastructure, but I have not seen anything talking about, 'Here's how we're going to distribute it out to the states and localities.' It's going to be tricky for them because they've got some competing interests there."
rsmith@fbnewsleader.com
Story created Jan 05, 2009 - 13:39:29 PST.
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