Valley requests exceed $1.4B

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The Western Reserve Transit Authority is seeking $7 million from the federal stimulus package for gas/electric hybrid vehicles.

That includes 10 hybrid buses at a cost of $500,000 each. WRTA also wants $2 million for 30 other smaller hybrid vehicles.

The WRTA requests are among about 390 proposals from Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties submitted to the state to receive federal economic stimulus money.

The requests from the Mahoning Valley exceed $1.4 billion.

The projects are on an Ohio Web site, www.recovery.ohio.gov/more, which lists proposals that have been submitted from areas throughout the state.

Projects have been outlined by state agencies, counties, cities and villages, townships, nonprofit organizations and for-profit private companies.

None has been approved for funding yet, as state officials are still considering how to dole out the federal funds.

Many of the Valley projects relate to transportation infrastructure — roads and bridges that are in need of repair.

Others cover new or revamped water and sewer lines.

The WRTA request as well as three projects from Youngstown State University weren’t previously reported among the projects seeking federal stimulus funding.

YSU’s projects include funding for a new building for the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

A university spokesman said additional projects are under consideration and could be added later.

The list shows:

U$100 million for a new STEM facility. YSU was ahead of the game among Ohio’s public universities when it created the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in fall 2007, but one of the major issues with the academic reconfiguration is that STEM is spread among four separate buildings, said Dean Martin Abraham, the STEM’s dean.

Another is the current teaching and research laboratories are old and need to be replaced, he said. YSU could build almost immediately, on university-owned land on the southern side of campus, Abraham said

U$6 million for the creation of an Alternative Energy Technologies Teaching/Research Center. That would also fall under the STEM college and involve the construction of a 10,000-square-foot facility to provide training for people to become engaged in the alternative energy technology field building alternative energy systems, Abraham said.

U$5 million to develop an alternative energy technology curriculum for the Teaching/Research Center.

XFor a complete list of requests from our tri-county area to date, visit http://media3.vindy.com/vindy/documents/cities/cities2.pdf.