Local officials have gotten federal backing on a number of appropriations requests that the governor said Thursday would help strengthen the public infrastructure, create jobs and boost the quality of life in the territory.
The governor recently made the requests — which were championed on the hill by Delegate Donna Christensen — hoping they would be included in the fiscal year 2010 omnibus spending bill passed Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives, according to Government House. Set aside for the territory is more than $33 million for a variety of local infrastructure, construction and mass transit projects, among other things.
The bill, which totals about $446.8 billion and is meant to cover the federal government’s operations in the upcoming year, is expected to clear the Senate over the weekend, according to a Government House news release.
The specific funding earmarks for the territory include:
– $20 million for the construction of a new regional training center on St. Croix for the V.I. National Guard;
– nearly $2 million for environmental compliance and improvements at the territory’s two landfills;
– $900,000 for improvements to the territory’s new sewer system;
– about $1.5 million for the territory’s Clean Water Act Revolving Fund;
– $500,000 for construction of a new Emergency Services Administrative and Clinical Health Center building on St.Thomas;
– $200,000 for renovation of the Eldra Schulterbrandt Long-Term Facility;
– $550,000 in U.S. Justice Department funding for the territory’s new 911 emergency communications center;
– $4 million in Army Corps of Engineers funding for a new flood control project in Estate La Grange, St. Croix;
– $200,000 in mass transit funding for the purchase of new Vitran buses;
– $200,000 for the purchase of a refurbished passenger ferry for St. John; and
– $3.25 million to buy land at Maho Bay and Hawksnest Bay for the National Park on St. John.
“I am enormously grateful to the House for acting on our requests for funding at a time of continuing economic uncertainty," the governor said in a statement Thursday. "These funds, in addition to the scores of millions of dollars provided earlier by the Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will go a long way to strengthen our public infrastructure, create needed jobs in the territory, and improve the quality of life for all Virgin Islanders."
