Stimulus Dollars

Hit The Road In Newtown

By John Voket

Based on the latest estimates provided to Newtown Public Works Director Fred Hurley this week, Newtown will receive enough federal economic stimulus funding, designated for transportation infrastructure, to complete three road projects.

The latest update Mr Hurley received through the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials (HVCEO), a regional planning agency that is coordinating these projects locally, indicates Newtown is scheduled to receive $634,997 in the first round of funding. The public works chief said that amount is just short of the total estimates for the three projects Newtown requested funding for, which were estimated to cost $705,657.

“It’s enough to underwrite these three road projects,” Mr Hurley said. While many questions and much speculation swirled around the first round of stimulus funding, estimated to exceed $800 billion nationally, Mr Hurley sought to clarify several important points.

First, he expects there will be more funding from a second or subsequent rounds of federal stimulus initiatives. Second, funding from the first round faced extremely tight qualifying stipulations, which actually eliminated at least one town in the HVCEO region from any funding.

And perhaps most importantly, Mr Hurley said although Newtown is receiving enough federal funding to complete the three designated road projects, additional money from the same stimulus initiative will likely end up in Newtown in the form of state Department of Transportation (DOT) road or bridge improvements.

He cited a Walnut Tree Hill and Glen Road bridge project as an example.

“The initial phase of that bridge replacement project has already been funded, and is in final design as we speak,” Mr Hurley told The Bee. “The construction phase is currently eligible for federal stimulus funding that will benefit the town, but will be passed through the state DOT.”

Mr Hurley is sympathetic to taxpayers locally who hope Newtown will see some financial relief through President Barack Obama’s proposal, but urges them to sit tight.

“This initial program is very complicated because it contains so may programs under the $800 billion umbrella,” Mr Hurley said. “I believe Newtown will see a lot more money coming through the school system, and the second round, which I fully expect to see, will contain funds for local brick and mortar projects.”

Mr Hurley suggested Newtown might even get more money from the first round.

“There’s a lot of competitive funds available, and as application deadlines pass, or projects applied for become ruled out for various reasons, some additional undesignated funds could be turned back for us to get a shot at.”

He said currently in Newtown, “a lot of roads that need a lot of work” do not qualify for the federal program because they are not on the US Highway system — a funding stipulation requirement.

“But we have other road work to do that is planned and funded by Newtown taxpayers, and we will do the best we can to complete those projects,” Mr Hurley said. “And we already have identified many more roads which are on the US Highway system for consideration in the second round.”

The three roads getting attention from this first round of transportation stimulus include:

*Castle Hill Meadow — estimated at $255,902 for paving work to improve the overall safety of the roadway.

*Queen Street — milling and repaving estimated at $157,880 (Possible second round funding will be pursued for sidewalk installation, according to Mr Hurley)

*Castle Hill Road — construction work centering around what Mr Hurley described as the “car eating curve” at the base of the north/south hill leading into town.

“That work will involve correcting some of the geometry, but it will still require drivers to apply some physics by controlling the excessive speed that contributes to so many motor vehicle problems there,” he added.

Mr Hurley said because town crews already completed the drainage work on these three roads, there will be no issue with delivery deadlines tied to completing work being underwritten by transportation stimulus funding.