No stimulus funds for sewer projects

Charlottesville is discovering that environmental and sustainability projects may have the best luck of cashing in on $787 billion of federal economic stimulus funds.

“We have a good record of it, we are already ahead of many localities,” City Council member Satyendra Huja said.

More than three months after President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, many details remain up in the air, but some funds slowly are being allocated for a select few projects in the city.

Officials say water and sewer projects appear to not be gaining as much capital as was initially hoped, while the burden of paying for the improvements gets heavier as the infrastructure continues to age.

“It doesn’t compare from a magnitude standpoint,” said Aubrey Watts, the city’s director of economic development, of the city’s water and sewer needs versus those of other localities.

Water projects pricey

Out of its $64 million request for funds, Charlottes-ville is expecting to tap into roughly $6 million, at this point, for different local and regional projects.

But in its original tally, the city listed $22.5 million in water and sewer projects alone, which included improvements such as upgrading the Stadium Road sanitary sewer collector and rehabilitating roughly 34 miles, or 20 percent, of the city’s sewer lines.

Applications for both of those projects, according to a recent report, have been denied.

“We are disadvantaged by the fact that we are not as economically disadvantaged,” Mayor Dave Norris said. “We are not hurting as much as other parts of the country.”

Watts said that statewide, only a small amount of stimulus dollars has been slated for water and sewer infrastructure projects. And while Charlottesville may have its issues — past reports have said the city needs to spend more than $45 million to rehabilitate its systems — Watts said there are other areas of the state where problems are far more severe, such as the environmental problems created from the sanitary and storm systems of Richmond and Lynchburg.

“They took a look at the most serious polluting areas and said basically, we’re going to try to solve those,” he said.

Funds far from spent

A minute amount of stimulus dollars has actually been spent, according to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office. Through the end of April, roughly $19 billion, or 5 percent, was spent of the $380 billion that has been authorized for 2009.

Local officials said they think environmental and energy efficiency projects could fare much better in securing financing. For example, it is projected that about $2.9 million will be allocated to the Charlottesville Metropolitan Statistical Area — which includes the city and the counties of Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna and Nelson — to make energy efficiency improvements on 382 homes.

The city also plans to apply for $195,300 in energy efficiency and conservation grants, among other proposals.

“We’re still hopeful that we’re going to get some of those competitive grants,” Norris said, though he added that the unlikelihood of getting infrastructure dollars was unfortunate.

There are a small number of other projects in Charlottesville that are slated to get an infusion of federal money.

So far, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority has been awarded $796,931 to improve the city’s public housing, and the Charlottesville Transit Service has been approved for about $1.3 million to purchase new equipment — such as two hybrid “trolley” buses, the first for the system.

CTS also will be eligible for a second round of stimulus funds in the fall, when the Commonwealth Trans-portation Board approves another $13.2 million in rail and public transit money to be spent all over the state.

“Everybody should be getting their projects ready, getting their ducks in a row,” said Joseph Swartz, who works for the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, at the May meeting of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Though the city is starting to see some dollar amounts, that doesn’t mean the money is actually in the city’s pocket, Watts said. The federal government is still figuring out how any monetary awards should be doled out.

Watts, who gave the City Council an update last month on the city’s funding situation, likened it to someone who has worked all week and knows they would be compensated, but hasn’t gotten their paycheck yet.

No checks yet

“To the best of my knowledge, I’m not aware of us having received any checks yet,” Watts said.

He said the city government would be giving quarterly updates to councilors as the funding pieces come in.

“It’s a very involved process,” he said.