West Hartford's Piece Of The Obama Stimulus Pie

The total of cost of all of the projects submitted by Connecticut is $2,650,247,958

The total cost of all the projects submitted by West Hartford is $66,750,000 according to this report.

The people over at Stimulus Watch lets you see projects by State and Town

In the online report are the "shovel-ready" projects that the mayors of this state submitted in the 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors report. You can click on a project to read (and add to) its description. You can also discuss the project and vote on whether you believe it is critical or not. For a more local view, you can drill down to projects in a particular city. Just choose a city from the following list.

Here's West Hartford's slice of the pie.

Description			Jobs	Cost	Program Type	Vote Ratio
Arterial Street Reconstruction			40	$3,000,000	Streets/Roads	-2
Street pedestrian safety improvements			50	$2,500,000	Streets/Roads	-1
Street reconstruction			50	$2,000,000	CDBG	-4
Community Center Improvements			40	$1,000,000	CDBG	-5
Economic development streetscape			50	$1,000,000	CDBG	-10
Handicap accessibility			50	$1,000,000	CDBG	-2
Sewer improvements			40	$800,000	CDBG	2
Sidewalk replacement			40	$500,000	CDBG	-4
Housing Rehab.			50	$500,000	CDBG	0
Street light led upgrade			100	$4,500,000	Energy	-1
Fuel Cell installation rink/pool			90	$3,000,000	Energy	-4
Boiler Replacement schools			50	$2,750,000	Energy	2
School window replacemnt			50	$1,700,000	Energy	1
Vehicle replacement			10	$400,000	Energy	-3
Expansion of senior housing complex			300	$20,000,000	Housing	-3
fire station replacement			200	$10,500,000	Public Safety	2
public safety equipment			50	$2,500,000	Public Safety	7
Additional personel			10	$1,000,000	Public Safety	-3
school fiber optic improvements			85	$3,500,000	Schools	-3
School ventilation improvements			80	$2,400,000	Schools	0
school fire safety improvements			75	$2,200,000	Schools	4

Will those projects bring new jobs to West Hartford? Will they bring new business to West Hartford? Will they encourage consumer spending? Will someone who is laid off be able to work on these projects? Will these jobs prevent more layoffs? How soon can any of these projects actually be started and how soon would they be completed?

It looks like it will bring tax relief and allow us to rebuild and improve infrastructure.
It looks like some of the energy initiatives will save us some money in the long run with the installation of LED lighting and use of fuel cell technology.

President Obama has given Mayor Slifka (along with other mayors across the country) a very stern warning! Don't waste the money. So as long as we are getting it, let's make sure we get the most out of it.

On each project link you can vote as to whether these projects are critical or not. You can also post comments about the projects.

The website does have an "FAQ" page.

Below is an explanation of program types in this stimulus plan.

The Mayors Report lists ten "sectors" in need of federal funds. These sectors are federal funding streams — government programs designed to award money to the states for a variety of infrastructure-related uses. They are:

1. Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) - HUD program established in 1974 that awards localities funds to spend on local projects that promote urban vitality, and primary benefit low to moderate income persons.
2. Energy - The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) is a Department of Energy program established in 2007 to provide grants to localities to adopt energy efficiency improvements.
3. Transit Equipment and Infrastructure - Department of Transportation programs to purchase buses, street cars, and maintain transit infrastructure.
4. City Streets/Metro Roads - The Surface Transportation Program, operated by DOT, provides bridge, bus, rail and road project funding
5. Airport Technology and Infrastructure - Airport Improvement Program, a DOT program that provides funds for specific airport repairs and improvements (runways, rescue equipment, noise abatement)
6. Amtrak - established by Congress in 1970 to operate passenger railways. Funding for railway upgrades, tunnels, bridges and stations.
7. Water and Wastewater Infrastructure - federal grants used to repair water and sewer infrastructure, and protect the water supply
8. Public Housing Modernization - HUD Public Housing Capital Fund for repairs to public housing
9. Public Safety - Funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant, and Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, Justice Department programs that provide money to hire security personnel and equipment.
10. Schools - a new federal program is proposed to provide federal funds to modernize school buildings.

For whatever it is worth - at least we are getting funds back into our hands from the government. That would be a very good thing if the government wasn't just printing up tons of money to do this, which we all know could cause incredible inflation in our economy.

It's hard to decide if the shorter term gains of project works are really worth the overall damage to our economy that runaway deficit spending by the State and Federal government will ultimately produce.

It's kind of like you mortgaging all of your house equity and maxing out your credit cards to pay for stuff and then passing along all of those debts to your kids when you die (and leaving them no insurance, and of course the house is worth less than what you owe on it).

It doesn't really matter if the projects are good or bad - Someone has to pay for all of this.

Oh well, I guess we just pull up a chair and enjoy the pie now.
We'll have to take our chances on the possible resulting stomachache.

Watching You In West Hartford

The Courant reported on this story as did West Hartford News. (link not available at this time)

Speed detection cameras have been installed across town in West Hartford as a result of some federal money, according to statements made by the Town Manager in the last Town Council meeting. The cameras will photograph cars traveling 15 mph over the speed limit or faster. Each image shows the vehicle, with a magnified view of the front license plate. People who are traveling 45 mph or faster at the Whiting lane area, which is a 30-mph location, will get a photo with a warning letter. The reason they won't get a ticket is because the State prohibits using these radar cameras for enforcement purposes. It's a hotly contested Constitutional issue. So for now, the issue of using cameras to combat speeding is largely a "public awareness" campaign.

The West Hartford Town engineer said that images will be downloaded and kept in a computer file that will be available for public viewing. Printouts of the images will be given to the police department.

The Constitutional issue at hand is huge regarding the issuance of speeding tickets from these cameras and it amounts to this:

Under the Constitution you have the right to confront and cross examine your accuser. With a camera set up like this you cannot do this. You have no way to examine the skill and accuracy of the camera or the photographer’s method. The device to establish your speed could be out of adjustment. With this speed camera set-up you have no right to have extenuating circumstances examined. You could be speeding to get out of the way of an out of control truck, and that part is not recorded.

Additionally,according to NMA (National Motorists Association):

1. Ticket recipients are not adequately notified.
2. The driver of the vehicle is not positively identified.
3. Ticket recipients are not notified quickly.
4. There is no certifiable witness to the alleged violation.
5. Ticket camera systems are designed to inconvenience motorists.
6. Ticket cameras do not improve safety.
7. Taking dangerous drivers’ pictures doesn’t stop them.

The cameras are designed to do nothing more than raise revenues, if and when they can become ticketing cameras. It is a device used to make less work for police, so that they don't have to be out doing their job of policing traffic.

They look ugly too.

The Greening Of West Hartford

Solar Array on top of Town Hall

Did you know that West Hartford is a "Clean Energy Community"?

West Hartford became Connecticut's 2nd Clean Energy Community in June of 2005. More than 100 town residents and businesses signed up for the CTCleanEnergyOptions program.

There are more details at CT's Clean Energy website:

West Hartford Town Hall received a 3 kW solar photovoltaic system from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. This system is comprised of three racks of five Sanyo 200-watt solar modules and an SMA 3800U inverter for this grid-connected application. A technology from Fat Spaniel provides the communications gateway to monitor the system's performance (see below). A company called PV Squared, a New Britain Connecticut-based company, performed the design and installation of the system.

According to the chart on their web page we have saved $597.80 in energy costs in a year's time. We also avoided Federally Mandated Congested Charge Costs of $101.30 in a year's time as well.

It may not be much, but it is a start.

Unfortunately, it doesn't cover the losses that we incur for recycling.

Costs for the Town to recycle:
FY06 Cost $ 761,351, $124.28 Per Ton, for 6,126 Tons
FY07 Cost $ 666,439, $107.37 Per Ton, for 6,207 Tons
FY08 Cost $1,110,944, $168.15 Per Ton, for 6,607 Tons
(information was from Jim Francis, Former WH Town Manager)

CRRA gave us back $10 a Ton last year so the net cost to us was $158.15 Per Ton. They gave us a rebate check for $66,068.10.

It's a cost to the town for sure - and it is being said that it may get more expensive as it becomes more difficult to find buyers for recyclable materials in difficult economic times.

But on a positive note - we have this to show (from an excerpt of Council Briefs)

Public schools saved $20K in less than three weeks: Throughout November, all West Hartford Public Schools are competing in an effort to conserve electricity with a goal of reducing electricity use by 10%. Seven schools have already well surpassed their goals for the month, with Whiting Lane crushing the competition, Conard way ahead of Hall, and Sedgwick and King Phillip neck and neck. As of November 19, all West Hartford schools combined saved 120,544 kilowatt hours on their electric bills. That translates to a savings of $20,492. You can track each school’s daily progress toward the goal at this website

Hey, that doesn't even cover Dr. List's raise in salary when she becomes superintendent!
Kid's - keep on shutting off your lights and conserving; Dr. List's raise and teacher salary increases depend on it! (Maybe they can read by candlelight! Noah Webster would be proud indeed)

Some people have suggested installing small wind generators on Avon Mountain to provide energy for the Town. Since West Hartford was settled because of the energy created on Trout Brook and other waterways, some also say that maybe it is time we looked at water power again as well.

In the meantime, we will also replace lighting with more efficient LED lights too.

The again, we all know there is (and has been) a wealth of hot air already being created in various parts of town - especially in Town Hall.