County names infrastructure aid priorities

Just in time for Christmas, the governor’s office is receiving a $164 million wish list for infrastructure projects in Albemarle County.

The wish list tells state officials which projects Albemarle is most anxious to have funded if Congress chooses to assign hundreds of billions of dollars in economic stimulus money. The chairman of Albemarle’s Board of Supervisors, Kenneth C. Boyd, said he plans to send a letter to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine this week on behalf of the county.

Congress and President-elect Barack Obama have discussed passing an economic stimulus package next year that could top $850 billion. As a result, numerous state agencies and local governments are preparing wish lists for infrastructure funding.

“From the best I can tell, or at least what is envisioned, any economic stimulus money that comes from the federal government is going to flow through the state, not directly to localities,” Boyd said. “So, all of us are putting together our Christmas lists and sending it to the governor.”

Albemarle’s wish list includes $75 million worth of funding requests for urban infrastructure, $58 million for schools and $31 million for transportation.

Boyd said county staffers put together the priority list based on projects in Albemarle’s Capital Improvements Program that are “shovel ready,” meaning that design or construction work could begin within 180 days if funding is made available.

Combined, about $39 million is on the wish list for renovations at Western Albemarle High School and three small elementary schools that feed into Monticello High School — Red Hill, Yancey and Scottsville. There’s also a $7 million request for a two-story addition at Greer Elementary to accommodate more students.

A $13 million project at Jarmans Gap is the most expensive transportation request. The project would improve a cross section from Route 240 to Jarman Lake Drive and add new bike lanes and sidewalks.

About $10 million is also being requested for a new, 20,000-square-foot library in Crozet, and $12 million to construct a fire, police and EMS training facility.

Some items are far less pricey, such as a $100,000 request for maintaining county nature trails, and $300,000 for sidewalks along State Farm Boulevard.

“These are infrastructure projects which are needed in our county but we have no funding for,” Boyd said.

Kaine’s spokesman, Gordon Hickey, said that it “wouldn’t hurt” for localities to submit funding requests.

“I think we all have a strong sense that President-elect Obama certainly intends to put some sort of infrastructure [stimulus] package out there. What Congress does — we’ll see,” Hickey said. “But everybody certainly hopes that they’ll do something along those lines.

“There’s a whole bunch of projects that are all over the state that are ready to go. It’s just a matter of not having any money,” Hickey said.

Boyd said that the funding request “really is a huge wish list of everything we’d like to do” and he isn’t making any assumptions about whether the projects would be funded.

“I’m not going to put a whole lot of expectations in campaign promises, particularly when they’re starting already to back off on the expectations of what Obama’s going to be able to do,” Boyd said.