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Road to recovery
TweetSeveral Mahoning County projects are set to start soon.
By JON MOFFETT
Vindicator Staff Writer
The first wave of what is expected to be millions of dollars in federal stimulus money has made its way to the Mahoning Valley.
Contractors began work by placing signs that read “Putting America Back to Work: Project Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” along state Route 39 in Columbiana County. The project is one of many expected to begin in coming months.
State Route 39 is the major east-west route used to move goods and services in the region,” said Dick Bible, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 11, which includes Columbiana County.
“By making this investment, we are extending this pavement life by 10 to 12 years.”
The $1.8 million project will resurface 12 miles of Route 39 from the village of Carrollton to the Columbiana County line, and an additional mile into Salineville. Work is expected to be completed by mid-September.
Mahoning County is also close to putting the steamrollers on the road for several shovel-ready projects. Paula Putnam, a spokeswoman with ODOT’s District 4, said work should begin soon.
“We just received four calls for our projects,” she said. District 4 covers Ashtabula, Mahoning, Summit and Trumbull counties.
The Mahoning County ODOT projects include four “mill-and-fill” repaving jobs. Putnam said work should begin within the next few weeks to repave sections of Interstate 680 in Austintown, West Fifth Street in Beloit and combined projects of state Routes 7, 625 and U.S. Route 62 in Youngstown and a bridge repair project on state Route 11 in Canfield Township.
Putnam said District 4 will have “preconstruction meetings” in the next week or two. ODOT is in the process of evaluating bidders for the different projects to make sure the contractors can fulfill the jobs. She said the contractors fund the projects and are then reimbursed by ODOT with the stimulus money. The jobs have preliminary bidders, but Putnam said each bid must be verified before work can begin.
And while the process has taken a while, Putnam said the projects should be under way soon.
“I think they’re going to rush this process,” she said. “These contractors will want to get paid.”
Other projects in the county are also on the verge of readiness. The Mahoning County Engineer’s office is finalizing bids for two projects, said Marilyn Kenner, chief deputy engineer. Bids are being taken for a mill and fill project on South Avenue and a repair of Glen Bridge on Glenwood Avenue.
“We opened bids on July 1 and are evaluating them currently,” Kenner said. She added that the projects should be awarded by the middle of August.
At least one Mahoning County project could get a boost this week. The Western Reserve Transit Authority in Youngstown has accepted bids for a $2.5 million project to renovate its facilities and upgrade transportation services.
Jim Ferraro, WRTA director of transportation, said the project will be awarded as early as Thursday. He said work will begin soon after and should be completed by year’s end.
“Most of the project is in pretty good shape right now,” he said. “What we understood was that this was a shovel-ready project, so we made no changes to the original plans and we are ready to go.”
Even more important than upgrading or repairing, Ferraro said, is that the projects put many people back to work.
“It’s going to be a nice project for local construction companies,” he said.
Things have progressed slowly since the announcement of the money. Local officials have been visibly frustrated about the lengthy process. Although Putnam has sympathy for those looking to get the ball rolling, she understands why the process take so long.
“I want to see these projects get done too; show me the contracts,” she said, laughing. “As a citizen, I’m thinking, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”
But she added that such hurdles are necessary to ensure no further delays in the legal process.
“The language of these projects has to be so detailed,” she said.
Kenner agreed, saying, “Shovel-ready means that your plans are done. You still need to compile a bid book, you still need ODOT to approve your bid book ... they are just making sure everyone is following the letter of the law.”
jmoffett@vindy.com
SEE ALSO:Mahoning sets goals on sewer projects.
Comments
Every one of these projects and all of this stimulus money that is going into the valley economy was voted against by every Ohio Republican representative in congress.
And they deserve praise for voting against spending that is taking our country to the brink of collapse.
If only they were so responsible when they were in power.
The key to stimulus is lower taxes AND lower spending. Interesting how no one understands you can't spend money to get out of debt, they face the same constraints as every other citizen in this country in the end.
"That we are bound to defray expenses within our own time, and unauthorized to burden posterity with them." - Jeffereson
If we lived by the words of Jefferson there wouldn't be the stimulus.
Also the great economist Milton Friedman has pointed out that the similar program, the new deal, had in every case proved counter productive. Especially as the unemployement rate after the New Deal was higher than prior to it. The New Deal was nothing but an illusion to the people that by spending vast quantity of money they would prosper, the exact opposite happened. Perhaps we should have also listened to the research of probably the greatest economist of the 20th century.
WASTE OF TAX-DOLLARS.
My God these are simply campaign signs for 2012. Why should we, the taxpayers, have to waste a thousand dollars a pop on one of those Stimulus signs?!?!?!
Cambridge, EVERYONE of these Stimulus Dollars will be repaid by my generation, the teenage generation, in the future. Not you, easy for you to say.
The Democrooks got it WRONG and the next election will see them voted out in droves. The Stimulate This ACT isn't working. What a waste of taxpayer dollars funding state budgets that will ultimately lead to tax increases for everyone - cities, states, and the USA.
Where is the minorities in this picture ? We can't have that people! You have a 33/ law in this nation I suggest you use it The Rt#39 project is a joke. Salineville with all their Huntinton bank buildings and torn up streets through out the town and now need a stimulus to repave the State routes. How ever none of the worthless employees have been laid off in this village of 500 people ! The pot holes are everywhere. But the old delapated town gets nothing while civil organation keep hanging out and pretend they are working. What a joke.
I've read on this board a million times. "What have Democrats done for the valley", "when will the government bring jobs to the valley". Well the Democrats just saved thousands of jobs by keeping Lordstown open, and has set aside 60 million dollars to date that will go directly into the valley economy. So when someone finally does what everyone has been screaming for your against it. Which is it? You can't have it both ways.
Did Obama create this economy or did he inherit it? Do you actually think you could fix something that broken without investing something in it?
If you can't see positive results in the direction the economy is taking in only six months your not looking very hard. Look at the gains in the stock market. I live in a large metropolitan are. Nine counties with 7.5 million people. The median sales price on homes has risen in all nine counties the last three months in a row. The stimulus money is now reaching the job market.
The link below explains a little how 13 billion in stimulus money will help those seeking higher education.
http://www.nacacnet.org/PublicationsR...
Yeah I must not be looking very hard. I guess maybe its because I don't guage the health of the economy by looking at a stock quote. I guess in '07 when the dow hit 14,000 that was an indicator of how great the economy was.
Of course, the guy that said it was going to collapse was called a moron but what did he know anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I0QN-...
I think I have an idea that would interest you cambridge. For a stimulus to the economy, we should hire two construction crews, union of course. One wil simply dig holes and the other crew will simply fill them back in. Imagine the number of jobs we can create just by doing that on a national scale. Gosh, Keynesian economics is great. I can't imagine why Japan's stimulus left them with bridges to nowhere and the termed Lost Decade.
Search4 Answers....another excellent video. Peter Schiff was obviously paying attention but he wasn't the only one. I have to disagree with his comment that the value of stock and real estate is not real. I've made a ton of money in both. Enough to retire and live off of those investments. The money in my pocket is real.
Back to the economy. The current economy is the result of the direction the economy was driven the last eight years. I agree a lot of it was smoke and mirrors. But you can look at the bank bailouts. If the financial institutions failed it would have been mayhem. Obama's end of that bailout was 350 billion. Because he placed restrictions and conditions on the banks 70 billion has already been paid back. I consider that a good investment. I guess the question is, should the government intervene and stimulate the economy and give it a jump start or do nothing? No one likes taxes but lower taxes on people without a job wouldn't be much help. I think we disagree on the role of government in this situation but I respect your opinion. You bring up good points. Your last comments about digging and filling the holes was not one of them. No one advocates that and to say it hurts your credibility. Just stick to actual facts,you'll be better off.
Yeah, but it is estimated they have lost $104 billion.
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/...
I've seen better articles but this says about the same thing and I don't feel like looking for hours.
The digging holes and filling them back in was a joke. It's often said that's what Japan practically did with their stimulus projects. Of course Japan's stimulus in the 90's also failed miserably and left them with 200% of debt to GDP.
I guess you have to really ignore real world failures if you want to believe public works actually stimulate an economy.
We are on a road into the unknown . What does Warren Buffett see in the near future ?
http://www.kolnkgin.com/home/headline...
Berkshire Hathaway Unloads nearly 8 Million Shares
Omaha
Posted: 8:56 PM Jul 22, 2009
Last Updated: 8:56 PM Jul 22, 2009
Reporter: Associated Press
Billionaire Warren Buffett's company has unloaded nearly 8 million shares of Moody's stock and reduced its stake in the credit rating agency to 17 percent.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. revealed the sales in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.
Buffett's Omaha-based company held 48 million shares of Moody's stock on March 31 just before Moody's cut Berkshire pristine triple-A credit rating.
As of Wednesday, Berkshire held 40,013,700 Moody's shares.
Berkshire reported selling most of the Moody's stock over the past three days at prices between $26.59 and $28.73 on average.
Berkshire officials do not typically comment on stock transactions, and the company's spokeswoman was not available Wednesday evening.
Bascially what peter schiff is saying is that their has been a distortion in the markets view of value. If you devalue the money and the dollar amount of your house goes up thats doesn't mean your house gained any value.
Yeah, the value of your money isn't real either. It's backed by nothing but paper and is worth only what you believe it is. It's been since '71 that your dollar actually had real value when it was backed by gold and not debt like it currently is.
There is a difference between money and value.
Track your money against something of real value like gold and I guarantee you have lost value. Gold has roughly tripled in 10 years in dollar terms while it still holds the same real value as it always has.
First fix the elecric grid, We lose millions in lost electricity which eguals to millions in lost oil.
Convert diesel trucks to run on natural gas, A simple process that truckers and truckstops can do overnight and would save millions in oil. The trucks will even run cheaper per mile
Build a rail systems that isn't a joke were people can get from point A to point B quickly and not cost an arm and leg. Looked into taking a train from Pittsburg to Orland, cost over $250.00 and would take 30 hours
jimiohoh, I like the idea of natural gas. One thing we need is some sort of infrastructure for cng so we can have it sold at gas stations. Almost any vehicle on the road can be converted using a kit to run on cng. I don't think we should look into killing oil completely but offering an alternative. Honda has tried to get the cng thing going by selling it in one area of california. I don't believe we should have the government doing it but allowing for natural gas drilling and having some r&d tax credit for companies who spend money on gasoline alternatives including infrastructure building. We need some company who is going to try and capitalize on this idea by getting this started.
As much as I hate to admit it, President Bush gave the Big 3 the needed capital to stay open....
Valleyred,
The bailout of the "Big 3" was a de facto bailout of the UAW. Two of the three went into bankruptcy anyway.
Lets say that these wildly mismanaged auto makers closed forever. What would be the outcome?
The demand for automobiles would've remained unchanged, and the better run manufacturers would've increased their market share. They would've needed to hire more employees and order more parts, and maybe even opened new plants.
Instead, the Feds squandered the hard-earned income of alot of people, including our children's children.