Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 • Board of supervisors looking into funding from incoming U.S. president
Publisher’s note: This story originally appeared in the Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 edition of the Lassen County Times.
Barack Obama.The Lassen County Board of Supervisors is looking at submitting a number of county public works projects to be instantly funded by the office of President elect Barack Obama.
The idea came up during the unagendized reports portion of the Supervisors Dec. 9 meeting.
Brian Dahle.District 4 Supervisor Brian Dahle explained the premise after hearing about it at a recent conference of the National Association of Counties.
“The new president is looking for projects he can just fund that are ready to go,” Dahle said. “I’d like for us, if we have some of those projects, to forward some of those projects to NACo and our state legislature, and to the governor, so that when they’re working with those folks at the federal level, our projects could possibly get funded.”
Jim Chapman.District 2 Supervisor Jim Chapman added he had heard that there was something like $14 billion in projects just sitting on shelves around the country, and that the new administration was looking into these projects “to get the ball rolling.”
One of the projects mentioned at the county meeting was a swimming pool.
Roosevelt Pool on South Street served Lassen County residents for many years before it closed in 2004. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held today, Tuesday, June 21 as construction on a new pool is about to begin. The new facility should be ready for public use next spring.“If we take the high school’s plans, and we have the ground, we may be able to get the funding to build it,” Chapman said. “That’s how Roosevelt Pool got built in the 1930s.”
John Ketelsen.County Administrative Officer John Ketelsen said he has already been in contact with Senator Barbara Boxer’s Office about those projects, as well as paving additional roads in the county and upgrading county facilities.
News outlets across the country have publicized president elect Obama’s large scale public works project.
In a radio and Internet address on Saturday, Dec. 6, Obama gave a general outline of a plan he believes will bolster the country’s economy through a nationwide building program.
Several news organizations claim the program is on a scale similar to the interstate road building projects of the 1950s.
