The Times West Virginian

Local News

January 27, 2009

Stimulus package may help out Marion

‘Shovel-ready projects’ sought

By Misty Poe

FAIRMONT — From the I-79 Gateway Connector to improvements to the Fairmont Water Filtration Plant, Marion County has asked for its share of the federal economic stimulus package.

When you use the term “shovel-ready projects” in West Virginia, it totals about $2.2 billion. At least that’s according to a late-December list compiled by Gov. Joe Manchin’s office of projects that are ready to start within 180 days of the passage of President Barack Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package. Despite some opposition from the GOP, Obama’s administration feels that the $825 billion plan will pass by mid February.

Shovel-ready projects would have to start within 180 days of the bill’s passage, be complete within two years and preserve or create employment.

For Marion County, the state’s list includes more than $24 million in roads projects and $23.6 million in water, sewer and infrastructure projects. The list does not include any projects from the City of Fairmont, which petitioned the congressional delegation independently earlier this month.

West Virginia’s list, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Charleston Daily Mail, represents kind of a wish list, and the projects are not ranked or prioritized. Statewide, the list includes: $674 million in water, sewer and infrastructure projects; $746 million in roads projects; $224 million for roads and bridges for the parkways authority; $49 million in public safety projects; $158 million in public education projects; and $387 million for education projects. There’s also an “other” category, which includes items like a $14.7 million veterans’ cemetery and $17 million in renovations to the Capitol Complex.

Marion water and sewer projects include: Grant Town, $3.11 million; Barrackville, $5.74 million; Kingmill Valley PSD, $2.53 million; Worthington, $1.65 million; Rivesville, $3.38 million; and Fairview, $4.44 million. The state’s list was prepared in late December, and since then three water projects have received Small Cities Block Grant funding, including Mannington PSD, Rivesville and Grant Town.

As far as roads projects, the Gateway Connector is listed with a completion price tag of $22.7 million, the ninth most costly roads project listed statewide. There is also a request for $1.5 million for Fairmont Avenue, which a Division of Highways spokesman said Monday was the widening of Locust Avenue near Fairmont State University.

In letters to U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan and Sens. Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller sent earlier this month, Fairmont City Manager Jim Snider detailed the following projects as shovel-ready: $8.7 million for a permanent fix for the Fairmont Water Filtration Plant, which has yet to recover from serious design issues that caused a water crisis in 2007; $900,000 for water-line replacement projects; $430,000 for sewer projects; and $260,000 for a stormwater project on Ridgely Avenue.

E-mail Misty Poe at mpoe@timeswv.com.

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