Stimulus $$ sought by county

Repaved roads, bicycle lanes and energy efficient light bulbs are among the improvements the federal stimulus package will bring to Calaveras County.

The county’s Public Works Department already has been allocated $1.6 million in funds and is seeking another $4.4 million in competitive grants, according to a department report.
 

 More than $1.1 million of the allocated funds will go to repaving and adding shoulders to nearly six miles of county roads, consisting of sections of Meko Drive and Watertown, Olive Orchard and Pennsylvania Gulch roads.

About half of the balance will go to other transportation-related projects.

Almost $60,000 will go to a 275-foot long, 4-foot wide bicycle lane on each side of Bald Mountain from Highway 26 to West Point Elementary School.

Another $285,125 will go to constructing a solar-powered ADA-compliant bus shelter and to paratransit operations.

Construction on all the transportation-related projects will likely begin in the first warm months of 2010, said Tom Mitchell, the department’s senior engineer.

The other half will go to energy efficiency and conservation projects, which likely will focus on standard upgrades like replacing inefficient light bulbs and improving insulation.

The money is not without conditions. As has been well-publicized, all the projects had to be shovel-ready. It also must be spent on contractors, and more stringent environmental studies are required, Mitchell said.

Also, residents can expect to see signs posted along county roads advertising the projects, as visibility is a major requirement, he said.

The money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the stimulus’ official title, aren’t the only government dollars the county has benefited from lately.

California’s Proposition 1B, passed in 2006 by the voters but still paying for projects, allocated an estimated $4.8 million to Calaveras County.

About half of that went to repaving and adding shoulders to nearly 19 miles of road, with another $1.9 million of the total still on the way to continue such projects.

In contrast to the stimulus funds, all the improvements were done by county workers.

“That’s a huge thing for the county,” Mitchell said. “It really shows the value of our road crew on a day-to-day basis.”