Local board struggles with how to spend extra money
| Monday, Mar 30 2009 04:51 PM
Last Updated Monday, Mar 30 2009 04:51 PM
The Kern Council of Governments could receive up to $31 million in federal economic stimulus dollars to repair roads and build new infrastructure.
That could be good news for a laundry list of major road expansion projects that the transportation agency has been trying to advance for decades.
It isn't.
On Tuesday KernCOG Executive Director Ron Brummett will recommend the agency board break up the cash and assign it to the 11 incorporated cities and the county on a population-based formula.
The move would leave two of three major ready-to-go road-building projects high and dry.
But Brummett said the stimulus cash is designed to help employ people and get the nation's economic engine running.
And that can be done with small projects -- as well as large ones, he said, and smaller local contractors, who can't bid major jobs, might even get more work.
The KernCOG board voted, two weeks ago, to fund a 7th Standard Road interchange with Santa Fe Way and the segment of Highway 46 between Holloway Road and Highway 33 west of Interstate 5.
The City of Bakersfield had grumbled a little over that because they'd wanted money to build a segment of the Westside Parkway between Mohawk Street and Truxtun Avenue.
"In our eyes it's a critical connection and we want to make it happen as quick as (we) can," said engineer Ted Wright.
But there wasn't enough money for all three.
Now there's only money for one of those projects, 7th Standard.
Brummett blamed that on a bill passed by the California legislature last week.
"We had to guarantee that 40 percent of the money is going back to the cities and county," he said.
And the KernCOG board went further, two weeks ago, handing out 50 percent of their cash on a city-by-city basis.
Tomorrow, the board will be haggling over where to spend the remaining federal cash, around $15 million.
