1/7/2009
New Castle County seeking funds from economic stimulus package to help finance capital projects - Delaforum.com

If federal money is made available to it after Congress enacts President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, county government will seek up to an estimated $90.8 million.

That money would finance as many as 36 capital projects which, combined, would provide more than 1,000 jobs. Most, if not all, of those presumably would be with firms contracted to do the work and not additions to the government workforce. Although labled on draft list the administration has prepared as being "created," it is not certain how many would actually be new positions. County Executive Christopher Coons said none of the projects are simply 'make work' ventures, but are "things we would be doing anyway if we had the money." All are designed and 'ready-to-go' as quickly as they are financed, he said.

About three quarters of the money would be spent on rehabilitating and upgrading the county's sanitary sewer system. About half of that would go to projects in Brandywine Hundred. Also included on the list is money for parks, greenway trails and stormwater management. A new emergency medical services facility would be built and existing buildings modified for energy efficiency. Coons pointed out that receipt of federal money will not alleviate the county's fiscal problem because it would all go into sewer- and general-purposes capital budgets which are separately financed, mostly by bonded debt.

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