By Stephanie Gattman, Truth Staff
sgattman@etruth.com
The federal stimulus package was designed to create jobs and, as the name implies, stimulate the economy.
But if you look at the reality of the way the federal government works, jobs won't be coming any time soon from most of the projects generated by the stimulus funds.
The county has applied for more than $5 million for transportation projects. The contracts have to be let through the Indiana Department of Transportation because federal money is involved. The earliest that will happen is this fall, which means the projects won't actually begin until spring.
So much for putting people back to work ASAP.
Another problem has to do with how roads are classified.
In order to be eligible for funding in either the urban or rural category for stimulus funds, local roads have to be "functionally classified roads."
According to Jay Grossman, a project engineer with the Elkhart County Highway Department, those are determined by Census figures and are generally busier roads and linking highways.
Jeff Taylor, the county highway manger, identified them as arterial roads and major collector streets.
Only 15 percent of the county's 1,100 miles of roads are considered functionally classified, Grossman said.
"We may have needs we can't use money on," Taylor said.
A big example of that is C.R. 38 south of Goshen. It isn't classified as a functionally classified road, but it has more traffic than C.R. 50, which is.
Wakarusa and Middlebury each have only one such designated road in the town. The county is asking for funding to upgrade those streets.
Meanwhile, despite recently hopeful statements, the county is not able to retroactively obtain stimulus money for the Johnson or Six Span bridge projects.
Apparently at least one of the commissioners was hoping to do so last week and was talking about it at a public meeting.
Taylor and Grossman said that's impossible.
Although the county has followed federal standards for both bridges, it has not followed INDOT paperwork and certification that would qualify it for federal funding, Grossman said.
He said the county cannot retroactively obtain federal funding for a project. How the county would have purchased right-of-way, completed environmental documentation and conducted public hearings would have changed as well.
Federal funding also would have added at least several years to the process.
"You can't go back and unscramble that egg," Taylor said.
"We would not be building Six Span today if it had federal money attached to it," he said. It would still be in the planning stage.
It's a good example, however, of yet another problem with the stimulus package idea -- most local governments do not have the funding to have projects on the shelves waiting to go.
The county would have loved to submit the Kercher Avenue Bridge for funding. If there were a set of plans completed, right-of-way acquired and permits in hand, the project could have been submitted for stimulus money.
"What local government has resources to design a bunch of projects and just wait" for funding?" Taylor asked.
INDOT does and was able to move up U.S. 33, he noted. "We don't work that way," he said.