Ryan seeks funds for hodgepodge of projects

By David Skolnick | April 10, 2009 at 12:08a.m.

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles

YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan’s proposed federal earmarks for dozens of programs and projects include hybrid buses, a firing range and high-tech initiatives.

The 454 pages of requests can be viewed at timryan.house.gov/, the congressman’s Web site.

New U.S. House rules required members to provide detailed information about their earmark requests to the House Appropriations Committee, of which Ryan, D-17th of Niles, is a member.

Though Ryan is seeking a lot of money for projects from the federal 2010 budget, he’ll receive only a small percentage based on past requests.

Ryan’s big-ticket requests include:

• $22 million for an upgrade to Niles wastewater treatment facility.

• $21.4 million for a water project in Warren, Champion and Southington townships.

• $16 million for further upgrades to Girard’s lower dam.

• $18.4 million for the Youngstown Air Reserve Station with half going to a firing range at the Vienna facility and the other half to build a three-story lodging facility there.

“I direct my top priorities to projects that provide for economic development, improved health care, better education and renewable energy,” Ryan wrote on his Web site about his proposed earmarks.

Ryan added: “Significant developments are made possible by bringing much needed federal dollars to a project that would otherwise be impossible to complete.”

Youngstown State University is well-represented on Ryan’s list. There’s a $7.69 million request for a defense center at the university, as well as $6.54 million for a center on advanced energy initiatives, $4.4 million to develop lightweight military armor, $2.2 million for an alternative energy technology teaching laboratory and $1.5 million for advanced auto fuel research.

Ryan also wants $2 million for the Youngstown Initiative, a small business loan and grant program, and $1 million for an initiative to demolish and rehabilitate vacant properties in the city.

Other projects don’t have multi-million-dollar price tags.

He wants $75,000 for a skate park in Warren, $11,750 for Forum Health Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital to expand its sports complex, and $21,500 for the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department for ankle bracelet monitoring devices on nonviolent offenders to reduce the population at the county jail.

Ryan’s office posted the requests on the congressman’s Web site Tuesday night.

A policy created this year to increase transparency on earmarks was approved by the appropriations committee in January. The committee sent reminders to House members’ staffs March 11.

The policy requires House members to post their earmark requests on their Web sites when the requests are made. That deadline was this past Friday, but extended another day because of problems with the committee’s Web site.

Ryan’s Web site had a technical issue causing the congressman to delay posting his proposals, said Brad Bauman, his spokesman.

But Bauman said, “There was no hard and fast deadline” to post the information despite the appropriations committee’s policy language stating otherwise.

The four other members of Congress who represent the Mahoning and Shenango valleys had their requests online by the Saturday deadline.

Ryan's requests|17th District

Some of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan’s federal earmark requests for projects and programs in the Mahoning Valley:

$12 million for the high-tech block on the western portion of Youngstown’s West Federal Street. Of that amount, $6.7 million is sought for a 5-story, 30,000-square-foot facility where the former Wells Building is located and $5.3 million for a 200-space parking lot.

$22 million to upgrade Niles wastewater treatment facility.

$3.5 million for Syncro Medical Innovations of Youngstown for the continued development of a feeding tube for battlefield trauma patients.

$3.5 million for a tactical fabrication system by Ajax Tocco Magnethermic of Warren.

$2 million for the Western Reserve Transit Authority in Youngstown to purchase five diesel/electric hybrid buses. WRTA also seeks funds from the $787 billion federal stimulus package for hybrids.

$5.1 million for improvements to Meander Water, formerly known as the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

$1.57 million for a Forum Health medical center in Newton Falls.

$3 million for the Mosquito Creek sanitary sewer district in Vienna.

$1.5 million to improve the Packard Music Hall in Warren.

Source: U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan’s Web site

skolnick@vindy.com