American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

March 16, 2009

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On February 17, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Otherwise known as the economic stimulus package, the act is meant to create and sustain jobs, help the United States recover from the current recession, and invest in transportation, environmental and other infrastructure projects that will provide long-term benefits to the nation.   

The act contains nearly 200 separate funding elements.  For each element (program), there may be a different distribution mechanism:

▪ Where there are existing allocation formulas, funds will be distributed using those formulas.

▪ Some funds will go to the states and the states will have control of the funds.  They may make the funds

   available to communities, but the states will not be required to do so.

▪ Some funds will be allocated by federal agencies through a competitive grant process.

▪ In some cases, a distribution mechanism has not been developed.

Congress has indicated that by mid-March all the “rules” for distribution will be in place.  At this time, there are no official lists of projects or grants.  Thus far, the only federal funds to be authorized for local distribution are those for transportation and infrastructure.  This investment includes $27.5 billion that will be distributed directly to the states and Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO’s) by existing statutory formulas.

Some key points regarding stimulus dollars for the City of Terre Haute include:

1.       There are still a lot of unknowns about what stimulus dollars the City might get and what projects will be approved. What we do know is that Indiana will get approximately $700 million dollars for infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.) and the State (INDOT) will keep 55% and the remaining 45% will be distributed to local government via existing federal formula (population based).

2.       Any project that local government wants to be considered for funds must meet the following “shovel ready” criteria:

a.       Must already be on an approved INDOT project planning list.

b.       Must already be on the approved local MPO project planning list.

c.        Must have all design work completed.

d.       Must have all environmental work completed.

e.       Must have all property acquisition completed.

f.         Must be 100% local or state funded. There can be no federal funds previously designated for one of these projects.

3         The only project that the City has that will clearly meet this specific criteria is Brown Blvd. (Phase 1 & 2). We have completed the redesign of Phase 1 (taking out the roundabouts) and all environmental and property acquisition is complete.  Phase 2 was designed by the previous administration and has been sitting in engineering waiting to be redesigned (removal of some costly aesthetics, so we can fund the project in the future). There is no environmental work or property acquisition on this project. (Note: Vigo County only has only one project - 7^th and Springhill - that meets the criteria.)

4         None of our other projects meet the current federal criteria. Here are some examples and the reason they do not qualify:

a.       Margaret Ave. Phase 1 – Has existing federal funds attached to it.

b.       Blakely Ave. Extension – Has existing federal funds attached to it.

c.        Margaret Ave. Phase 2 & 3 – Both are in design phase and no environmental work or property acquisition will begin until next year.

d.       Lafayette Ave. – North of Ft. Harrison has been designed, but no environmental work or property acquisition has occurred because we have no funding in place to do this project.

5         My preference would be to use any stimulus funds to do Margaret Ave Phase 2 (behind Wal-Mart). It truly meets the intent of economic stimulus because we will open up a lot of property for development out east. The problem is the re-design won’t be completed until this summer and then we start the environmental and property acquisition work which could take months.

6         The next step is to fill out applications for any projects that we feel meet the established criteria. We will likely apply for a few that don’t quite meet the criteria today but will in a couple of months.

On March 2, 2009, representatives from the City met with the state’s Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC).  With the help of Ball State University and the University of Southern Indiana, OCRA and IEDC are compiling a database of economic development projects from across the state.  This data will be used by OCRA and IEDC to help direct communities to the proper funding source for grants.  In addition, we continue to communicate weekly with our state legislative consultants for additional opportunities.

At the federal level, we are in constant contact with our senators and congressman through our consultant in Washington, D.C.  Two weeks ago, the Office of Management and Budget issued a memorandum to federal agency heads that provides implementing guidance for the stimulus act.  The memo states that agencies must post funding opportunity announcements (i.e., synopses) for grants and cooperative agreement awards by mid-March.  Within ten days of those postings, agencies are required to provide full announcements.  We're monitoring this very closely.

At this point, the implementation of programs and distribution of the stimulus funds are pretty dynamic.  As we get further into the process, we expect there to be changes in criteria and qualifications.  You can be assured that I will not waste any local, state of federal funds on anything that is not good for the community.  My hope is that a “softening” of the project requirement criteria will occur because all communities face these exact same issues. I have discussed this with Congressman Ellsworth and he is hearing the same thing from Mayors throughout the 8^th District. We will also work hard to get other projects “shovel ready” in the event that future stimulus money would be available through direct funds.

Please, do not hesitate to contact my office  if you have any questions.

Duke A. Bennett, Mayor

March 24, 2009

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Update:  The following table shows the current funding that the City of Terre Hatue is expecting in various areas through direct formula allocation.  In some cases, an application for the funds is still required.  Each department will continue to meet the requirements of the funding source.  As of today, there is no specific timeframe for these funds to be received by the City:

April 24, 2009

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TRANSIT UPDATE: Projects identified for Transit include remodeling of the current garage, 2 new hybrid buses and 3 new diesel buses, an upgraded GPS system, 5 new bus shelters, new radios and new “smart card” fare boxes. The projects have been approved and are now awaiting approval of the driver’s union which is required for Federal projects. The engineer has begun the design phase for the building rehabilitation and, as soon as all of the approvals are in, we should get the notification that the money is available.  At that time, we will begin issuing all of the RFQ’s that are required, and then the awarding of bids.

May 6, 2009

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PUBLIC SAFETY UPDATE: The Terre Haute Police Department is now working on two different ARRA grant applications.  The first, JAG Program, has identified the funding to be allocated as follows (these are approximate numbers):  $30,000 will be given to the Vigo County Sheriff's Department, $10,000 will go tot he Vigo County Drug Court, $75,000 will be used to purchase five motorcycles for the Traffic Division, $23,000 will be used for new laptop computers for squad cars and $1,000 for the purchase of a fingerprint development chamber.

The second program, the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant, has been applied for.  The purpose of the program is to add new or restore otherwise unfilled officer positions during the national economic downturn.  If approved, this will fund six officers (including benefits) for three years.  We are awaiting a response.

July 14, 2009

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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, has provided the Department of Homeland Security with $210,000,000 to fund the construction and/or modification of fire stations.  The program will be administered by the Assistance to Firefighters Program Office under FEMA’s Grant Programs Directorate.

The Terre Haute Fire Department has applied for $1,300,000 to renovate Fire Station 5 located at the corner of 9th St. and Ohio St.  This will include expansion of the existing building.

October 30, 2009

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HUD UPDATE:  Reports were filed on Oct. 7^th for the City’s grants that the Department of Redevelopment is administering.

CDBG-R: $496,921 - One contract was awarded for the reconstruction (curbs, gutters, installation of a storm water system, new street trees, etc.) of 24^th Street from Barbour Ave. to Maple Ave. for $416,781.46 on 9/08/09 (this includes inspection work being preformed by the City Engineering Dept); 22 employees; approximately 50% complete.

HPRP: $760,163 – One contract awarded to Terre Haute Housing Authority to serve as “Single Point of Contact” for intake and case management. Services began on October 1, 2009.  No funds were expended during the first quarter.

INSP – Contract with IHCDA signed by Mayor Bennett on October 1, 2009. No funds were expended during the first quarter.

TRANSPORTATION UPDATE:  Bids were opened on August 26, 2009 and the project was awarded to Poindexter Excavating.  Poindexter should be starting work this week and the project will conclude next September.  Approximately 17 jobs have been created or maintained.

PUBLIC SAFETY UPDATE:  Grant # 2009RKWX0355 (COPS Grant) will allow the City to hire six new officers.  The ARRA Report was filed on October 7^th. The hiring process will take a minimum of two months. The start date will depend on the notification of candidates from the merit commission. The end date is 07/01/2013.

Grant # 2009-SB-B9-1964 (JAG Grant) for $154,451 This grant had to be shared with the Vigo County Drug Court, $10,000, to help with the Drug Court Coordinators Salary. The Vigo County Sheriff’s Office received $35,000 to implement Video Arraignment for three county courts. The West Terre Haute Police Department received $17,928 for various equipment upgrades. The Haute Police Department received $91,523.  Of this, $75,000 was used for the purchase of five new motorcycles (to replace those that were ten years old), $15,523 was used to purchase ten laptop computers for squad cars, and $1000 for a latent fingerprint development chamber. All of this grant money has been drawn down, the invoices for the Motorcycles, and the other departments receiving money have been turned in, as of October 8, 2009. 

February 24, 2010

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Department of Energy:  The City applied for and received an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) in the amount of $617,000.  The City's project for this funding source will involve changing current traffic signal bulbs to the more energy efficient LED lamps.  Additionally, control boxes and electronics will be updated to enable better control over how the systems function.  The new LED lamps will use less energy and last longer than the current bulbs.  Once the City receives funding from the DOE it plans to release a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to begin the planning process for the project.

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For additional information concerning the ARRA and the spending of money in Terre Haute, please visit the Federal Recovery Site at:

www.recovery.gov

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