Moxee among fortunate few to get stimulus road project

These editorials appear in the June 10, 2009, Yakima Herald-Republic.

Officials with the city of Moxee should be grateful they received help funding a much needed road project through the federal stimulus bill. It turns out not many other highway proposals made the grade.

In fact, recent reviews of the stimulus spending shows a scant amount of the "shovel-ready" funds actually went to help shore up this nation's flagging infrastructure. It turns out most of the roughly $300 billion that went directly to the states, including Washington, ended up paying for existing health care, jobless benefits and food stamp programs.

Worse yet, several of the states being hit the hardest in this recession received what amounted to a pittance of the money that Congress had set aside to jump-start the economy. In Michigan, which has the nation's highest unemployment rate thanks to the deteriorating U.S. auto industry, a USA Today news story showed federal agencies had spent only $2 million on stimulus contracts, or 21 cents per person.

Our neighboring state of Oregon, which suffers from high unemployment similar to Michigan's, also received minimal help -- just $2.1 per capita, far less than the national average of $13.

Now contrast this with the stimulus spending for North Dakota, which enjoys the nation's lowest unemployment rate. That state received $26 worth of contracts per person.

What the stimulus package has done is ease the pain of layoffs for state employees, including teachers, and has also assisted families with limited resources through an array of social programs. But shovel-ready projects? So far, they were few and far between.

That's expected to increase through next year as more projects get the stamp of approval.

For Moxee, the $500,000 in stimulus money will help improve a portion of Beaudry Road, a busy thoroughfare that borders the East Valley School District offices and access to the mammoth Ace Hardware distribution center. Work on widening the road and adding a bike path and sidewalks will begin next week.

Dates for other shovel-ready projects in this state and across the nation appear to be anyone's guess. That's what we feared when the record spending bill steamrolled through Congress. And that is exactly what we got -- more promises than projects.

Soccer complex still a great idea

What appeared to be a fabulous idea has turned into just that -- a great idea with no place to call home.

A proposed 35-acre complex in Yakima featuring a dozen soccer fields and concession stands seemed to be supremely suited for a tract of land next to the city of Yakima's wastewater treatment plant. But that site has fallen victim to changes in the way the city is able to discharge treated wastewater back into the river. New regulations make that more problematic, as do planned alterations in a series of levees near the plant.

That's why the city has informed soccer enthusiasts that the site along Interstate 82, which had looked so promising, is off the drawing boards.

What we don't want to see happen is an attempt to put this dream of creating a first-class regional complex for soccer tournaments into the dustbin of failed ideas. With its central location in the state, Yakima is a perfect spot to host these tournaments, which already bring more than $2 million annually into our local economy.

We urge the city and soccer proponents to keep working on a new site where a long-term lease could be hammered out. It was a fabulous idea last year when the city tried to get state funds for future planning of the facility -- and it remains to this day a fabulous idea.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.