Stimulus money for federal building stirs debate over need

YOUNGSTOWN — The seven-year-old Nathaniel R. Jones Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse is one of the most energy-efficient facilities managed by the federal General Services Administration.

It was the first GSA-managed building in the nation to receive a prestigious rating by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Because of its design, the GSA Web site states the Jones building’s heating bills are 22 percent lower than average and the building’s electric costs are 10 percent cheaper.

As of a year ago, it was only among eight GSA-managed building and one of 82 federal buildings to be certified by the green building council as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design structure.

Despite the honors and the energy-efficient measures at the Jones building, it’s receiving $601,000 from the $787 billion federal stimulus package.

“Because it’s certified doesn’t mean it’s at the top of the scale,” said David Wilkinson, a GSA spokesman. “Because it’s certified doesn’t mean it’s perfect. To say a building that opened in 2002 is perfect isn’t correct.”

“This strikes me as an extravagant use of taxpayers’ money in a city that could better use the money,” said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a federal spending watchdog organization.

The allocation didn’t sit well with Elizabeth A. Kobly, Youngstown Municipal Court’s presiding and administrative judge. The city is seeking $8 million from the stimulus package to replace its nearly 100-year-old court facility

“You just shake your head sometimes; I don’t know what to say,” Kobly said about the Jones funding. “It’s upsetting to me. ... The powers that be are spending money on this when it could be better spent.”

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