Regional planning commissions prepare spending lists for Obama's stimulus plan

The allure of big money to spend if president-elect Barack Obama gains passage of a massive economic stimulus plan has local government officials throughout Southeast Missouri offering ideas.

The six-county Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission has a $367 million list that includes items as big as $25 million for a new wastewater treatment plant in Cape Girardeau and as small as $75,000 for the East Lane Recreation Trail in Jackson.

The commission's counterpart to the south, the Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission, which also covers six counties, has a $97 million list that includes $2 million for a walking and biking trail in Scott County and $9.8 million for downtown infrastructure improvements in Kennett.

And the Missouri Department of Transportation's 14-county Southeast District has $55 million worth of projects on the department's statewide list that totals $510 million.

One entity, the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority, has projects on all three lists. The total price tag for the port is $34 million. All the port authority's projects are on its long-term improvement list that anticipates growth over the coming decades, said Dan Overbey, executive director of the port.

"What it would do is it would throw us 20 to 25 years into the future over the next two or three years," Overbey said. "It would be like moving at warp speed."

Realistically, Overbey said, the port won't get the full list. "I don't think anyone expects that all to show up. We would have to scramble to get it done."

Obama has said he intends to ask Congress for a combination of tax cuts and spending that some reports have pegged at $850 billion. On the spending side, Obama has called for the money to be used on projects where contracts can be awarded within six months of the stimulus plan's approval.

The lists prepared by the regional planning commissions are responses to a request from the Delta Regional Authority, an eight-state group that promotes economic development in the Missouri Bootheel, and the federal Economic Development Authority. The Bootheel commission's $97.2 million list has been reviewed to only include projects that could be started in 120 days, said Steve Duke, executive director.

The Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission's much larger $367.4 million list has not been thoroughly reviewed, executive director Chauncy Buchheit said. It represents a compilation of every project suggested by the cities, counties and intergovernment entities like the port authority, he said.

Buchheit expects more ideas to be forwarded. "Not only more but we need to clarify what we have got," he said. "From the city of Cape, for example, we need all kinds of stuff about the wastewater treatment plant replacement."

That $25 million project would be difficult, but not impossible, to have ready in the limited time that will be available after a stimulus package is passed, city manager Doug Leslie said. The city could adopt a design used by other cities in river floodplains, like Jefferson City, and the land where the plant would be built is already in city hands.

The current treatment plant, built in the 1970s, is going to need a major upgrade or replacement within five to 10 years under any conditions, Leslie said.

The requests for each commission are grouped by counties. The lists include:

• Cape Girardeau County, $95.7 million, including the Cape Girardeau wastewater plant, $1.6 million for wastewater treatment improvements for Allenville and Whitewater, $1 million for the Dutchtown levee project, $1.65 million for modernization of Cross Trails Medical Center and $27.6 million for road, water and electric improvements in Jackson.
• Bollinger County, $11.12 million, including $4 million for an industrial park and $3 million for upgrades to Highway 34 near Marble Hill.
• Perry County, $34 million, including $18 million for rehabilitation of the Chester bridge, $7 million for access to Interstate 55 from Route T and $300,000 a new small business training and counseling facility for the planning commission.
• Scott County, $33.6 million, including $6 million to purchase land for an industrial park, $400,000 for water improvements in Kelso and $24.6 million for the SEMO Port.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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