Economic stimulus award reaches milestone, and some gainfully employed locals are grateful

By JOHN LATIMER Staff Writer

Saturday marked the 250th day since passage of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act - the $787 billion economic-stimulus package designed to put the brakes on the nation's worst economic slide since the Great Depression.

The act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17, spread the money in a number of ways with the intent of creating jobs and saving others. Tax cuts and incentives to people and businesses accounted for $288 billion, while $144 billion went to the states to bolster their finances and $82 billion is being used on social-entitlement programs, including extending unemployment benefits.

Federal agencies are spending the remaining $273 billion to award contracts, grants and loans around the country to businesses, organizations, schools and municipalities. So far, Lebanon County has been awarded more than $39 million of it.

While there may have been no fanfare to mark the 250-day milestone, some who have benefited from the program have reason to celebrate.

Derek Byler is a custom-kitchen designer and builder from Cornwall who owns Heart of the Homes Kitchens in Hershey. When the economy hit the skids, so did his business.

To keep himself and his three employees working, Byler began looking for any jobs they could do. As a former general contractor, Byler was familiar with the government bid process. When he learned that the Lebanon County Housing Authority had received economic-stimulus money and was looking to replace windows in 61 dwellings, he put in a bid of $345,000 and won the contract.

"I used to be a contractor and home builder 23 years ago," Byler said. "For the last 11 years I've primarily been doing custom kitchens. But when things started slowing down I reached back into my past. This job is keeping me floating for the next few months."

Money for the window replacements was part of $4 billion the recovery act allocated to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for improvements to public housing. The housing authority's share was $835,000, more than its regular annual allocation of $660,000 director Bryan Hoffman said.

The HUD grants were among the first announced after the recovery act was signed into law, and the money moved out quickly. It's a practice for which the federal agency is not always known, Hoffman remarked.

"Actually, HUD was incredibly efficient about getting the money out," he said. "We executed our first contract on March 18."

One of the reasons the money was put to use so quickly is that the authority had a long list of shovel-ready projects on its to-do list, Hoffman said.

"The money that has come to housing authorities has been used relatively successfully because most of us are using it on a backlog of projects we wanted to do," he said. "We all have five-year plans, and virtually everyone was sitting on projects that needed to be done."

In addition to the windows, the authority used the stimulus money to install security cameras and repave some parking lots at its senior apartments. About $300,000 remains, and it will be used in the spring, either to replace windows at Washington Arms on Chestnut Street or to restore the bell tower at Stevens Towers on Willow Street, Hoffman said.

The housing authority money is just a tiny portion of the hundreds of billions of dollars made available in the stimulus package. As of Oct. 13, $309 billion in federal allocations have been announced, and $116 billion has been distributed, according to Recovery.org, the government Web site created to keep track of the money flow. Of that amount, Pennsylvania was awarded $9 billion and has distributed $3.5 billion.

Fort Indiantown Gap has received $12 million from the Department of Defense, or almost a third of the more than $39 million that has been awarded to the county. The money is being used for about 50 projects and will create or sustain an estimated 100 jobs in the private sector, spokesman Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver said. The base is also overseeing about $9 million in other National Guard projects around the country.

Like the housing-authority money, the funds being sent to Fort Indiantown Gap are going to good use, Cleaver said. Projects include upgrading 21 World War II barracks, sealing the runway at Muir Army Airfield, and replacing utilities, including an antiquated sewer system.

"We are getting to a lot of critical infrastructure projects that we had on our dockets for years," he said. "This is a much-needed investment for Fort Indiantown Gap."

Other large economic-stimulus projects in the county include road improvements to a three-mile stretch of Route 22 west of the Route 72 interchange in Union Township and upgrades to the Lebanon VA Medical Center at a cost of $5.5 million.

Pennsy Supply is to perform the Route 22 job, which includes adding turning lanes and reconfiguring the exit and entrance ramps, in the spring at a cost of almost $6 million.

Pennsy is a Harrisburg firm with a quarry in North Annville Township. Construction manager Barry Harbonic said the Route 22 job is one of four projects funded with economic-stimulus money that PennDOT awarded to the company.

Each month, Pennsy is required to report to PennDOT the number of man-hours worked on each project so the number of jobs created or maintained can be tabulated, Harbonic said. PennDOT then reports that figure to the federal government.

The recovery-act projects kept hundreds of the company's workers employed, Harbonic estimated. Subcontractors and other companies that provide material for the road work also benefited.

"It has maintained a lot of jobs," he said. "We have about 300 of what we call seasonal employees, and a lot of them would have had a real short season if it hadn't been for the stimulus projects."

Several area companies have taken advantage of low-interest loans using recovery-act funds. They include Weaber Inc., a sawmill in South Annville Township. The company received a $7.5 million loan at 2 percent interest from the Department of Agriculture, which was used to buy out leased equipment and restructure its financial portfolio to free up working capital, Executive Vice President Matthew Weaber said when the loan was announced in August.

A depressed housing industry recently forced the company to lay off about a quarter of its 400-member work force. But the loan will allow investments that will put the company in good position when the housing industry picks up, said Tom Buzby, vice president for corporate affairs.

Other local businesses to take advantage of stimulus loans from the Small Business Administration are Always Bagels, a New York company building a plant in North Lebanon Township, and Rothermel Funeral Home in Palmyra.

Several municipal governments have also received economic-stimulus money.

Annville Township received a $99,000 rural business enterprise grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which it put toward its downtown-redevelopment project. And Lebanon received an extra $225,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding from HUD, which it is using for road and water-main projects.

Lebanon also received a $1.5 million Neighborhood Revitalization Grant from HUD to buy foreclosed and blighted homes in the city. Ray Bender, director of Lebanon County Redevelopment Authority, told City Council last week that the first two homes were recently purchased for a combined price of $70,000 and will cost about that much to renovate.

Lebanon County's Community Action Partnership has been awarded several grants totaling more than $1 million for social-service programs, including homelessness prevention, job-search training and child-care assistance. Agency director Phyllis Holtry said the state budget impasse has held up the funds, but she hopes to receive them next month.

"There's tremendous need out there, and this money will be put to good use," she said.

johnlatimer@ldnews.com; 272-5611, ext. 149