Stimulus funds slowly find way to Central Va.

Although federal stimulus money for shovel-ready projects has entered the pipeline from Washington, much of it won’t become visible in the Lynchburg area until September or October, local government and transportation officials said this week.

Late summer is when schools will reopen with teaching and other jobs that were saved last spring by the promise of money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the formal name of the $787 billion stimulus program.

Bedford County Schools lists 55 positions saved because of stimulus money, and Campbell County saved jobs and even a school, Gladys Elementary.

Early fall is when most contractors, who are now submitting bids, actually put shovels into the ground on construction jobs. The largest of those jobs is Lynchburg’s $25 million sewer upgrade.

A few of the smaller stimulus-funded events are bearing fruit sooner.

Five people have been hired by Lynchburg Community Action Group, which will get $600,000 in stimulus money. The workers are weatherizing homes in Lynchburg, Campbell County and Bedford city, said Tom Daniel, assistant director.

“We are really excited about this weatherization money,” which triples the group’s budget for weatherproofing homes, Daniel said.

The group, informally called LynCag, has a waiting list of 300 homes needing insulation, and has bought some new equipment using stimulus money.

Other stimulus-funded events could bear fruit within several weeks, such as the hiring of three new emergency services dispatchers in Lynchburg and repaving of a stretch of U.S. 460 near Farmville.

Road repairs that are already under way in and near Lynchburg are funded by state or local governments, and not by stimulus funds from ARRA.

The largest stimulus project will add 3.5 miles of sewer line in Lynchburg’s combined sewer overflow project.

That’s twice the amount of work done so far in a multi-year program to replace 50-year-old pipes with a new, 6-foot-high sewer interceptor along the James River and a key rail line, said Greg Poff, assistant director of utilities. About 4,000 feet of the huge pipeline has been completed.

Up to 25 construction workers and railroad signalers could be at work, in up to three crews, once the next phase gets under way, probably in October.

“That’s as fast as this project can get moving” because of its size, Poff said, even though plans for it already were drawn up and sitting on the shelf last winter when talk of a stimulus plan emerged.

Contractors’ bids for the CSO job are due by Tuesday, so the project has generated work from bidders and in the city’s offices, Poff said.

Jobs at other employers also will be supported when pipe manufacturers and other suppliers, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic region, begin providing materials, Poff said.

“There is a buy-American clause in the stimulus package,” Poff said.

Contracts for another phase of stimulus work, bridge and culvert repair, may be awarded on Thursday by the Commonwealth Transportation Board.

Bids are in hand for 28 culvert rehabilitations and 10 bridge replacements, said Paula Jones, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation in Lynchburg.

“It will be several months before the work is under way — possibly October,” she said.

Broadband grants, another key part of the stimulus package, cleared a federal approval stage this week, and two federal agencies will accept applications for them, starting Tuesday,through Aug. 14, according to Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District.

Private companies, non-profit organizations, as well as states, regional broadband authorities and local governments may apply for the broadband money.

Amherst and Bedford counties have a high interest in the prospects for broadband funding.

,blockquote>Lynchburg’s assistant city manager, Bonnie Svrcek, listed these stimulus projects and their status:

- Emergency communications: The city was recently notified that the grant to fund three dispatchers has been approved. They have not been hired.

- Community Development Block Grant: The city expects to receive $237,404 in Community Development Block Grant stimulus money for 2008/09. The city has not yet received a grant agreement for these funds from the federal government and no jobs have yet been created.

- Department of Social Services: Child Care program stimulus money will enable the City to reduce the local match for certain child care programs from 10 percent to 5 percent. This has the potential of saving Lynchburg $38,562 in the current fiscal year.

- Public Works: An application has been submitted to the Department of Energy for Lynchburg to receive $740,000 in Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant funds. No response has been received on the status of the city’s application.