By Dan Shaw, Evansville Courier & Press
Sewer improvements, adding new technology to classrooms and road construction are all things on which Evansville could spend federal stimulus money.
Those proposals and many others were contained in a list released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week. They were assembled in the expectation of a new economic stimulus bill aimed at employing workers by spending money on public works.
To be included, the projects needed to be at a point where they could be started and completed within two years. Those that Evansville listed would carry a total value of about $148.4 million and would employ 476 workers.
Some of the most expensive plans were to:
Separate sanitary sewers from storm sewers along Southeast Brookside Drive and Covert Avenue. The project would also improve drainage in the area. It is estimated to cost about $24.7 million.
Separate sanitary sewers from storm sewers along Cass Avenue. The project is estimated to cost about $19.5 million.
Install interactive white boards, projectors, sound equipment and document classrooms in 1,500 cameras in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. The project is estimated to cost $10.5 million.
Improve the intersection of Fulton Avenue and the Lloyd Expressway, work begun earlier this year. The total project is expected to cost $32.4 million. The city has included about $5.3 million among its proposed uses of stimulus money.
Whether federal money goes toward any of the proposals will likely be a question lawmakers will take up after Jan. 20, when President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office. Discussions about a possible stimulus bill have put its price tag as high as $1 trillion.
Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel said Evansville's list was assembled about a month ago. Although it identifies specific projects, he doubted federal officials would choose to earmark money toward any of them.
"The purpose was simply to illustrate that there is a large number of projects we could be building and putting hundreds of people to work," he said.
He instead hoped the government would distribute stimulus money in lump sums, similar to what it does with community-development block grants.
Conspicuously absent from Evansville's list was any mention of a new stadium for the city's Downtown. The possibility of using stimulus money for that project was a subject the mayor broached when he spoke to U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, who visited the city about a week ago.
Weinzapfel said the omission is partly a result of timing. It was only this month that the Evansville City Council voted to build the stadium at a site now occupied by the D-Patrick Ford lot.
Weinzapfel also noted that the list contains a few projects that are related to the construction of a new stadium. They include proposals to change the flow of traffic Downtown and straighten out Main Street.
In the entire United States, 641 cities included proposals in the U.S. Conference of Mayor's report. They listed a total of 15,221 public-works projects. Undertaking them would entail spending about $97 billion and employing about 1.2 million people.
Sixteen mayors met with Obama and his aide in Chicago earlier this week. Weinzapfel said he did not attend that meeting, though he has participated in discussions of a possible stimulus bill with associates of Obama and other mayors.
Along with Evansville, at least 19 other Indiana cities submitted proposals. And cities are not the only institutions looking for a piece of any federal assistance.
In this region, both the Evansville Regional Airport, the University of Evansville and the University of Southern Indiana have shown an interest in securing stimulus money.