by @BarryRafkind in Economy & Poverty
Posted on February 22, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Last Modified on March 8, 2009 at 3:20 pm
loading…
While Somerville stands to lose up to $5 million in state aid over the next 17 months , it has requested hundreds of millions of federal stimulus dollars through Gov. Patrick’s economic recovery infrastructure program. Mayor Curtatone sits on the program’s Municipal Facilities Task Force.
The economic recovery program has published a set of documents (available in both PDF and Excel) including a summary of task force reports and two lists of shovel-ready projects, one state-reviewed and the other not-yet-reviewed. Below are a list of projects that are either specific to Somerville or involve the city.
$34,443,661 in Somerville-specific, State-Reviewed, Shovel-Ready Projects
- $343,661 : comprehensive Enterprise Content Management System to improve operational efficiencies, minimize risk, and be more responsive to its public employees, retirees, and retirement systems
- $33,700,000 : Build public roadways & utility lines to allow for 2.9 million sf of new development at Assembly Square.
- $400,000 : Maintenance at Somerville’s Trial Court
$25,275,000 in Multi-City, State-Reviewed, Shovel-Ready Projects
- $6,035,000 : Arlington, Somerville, Medford, Boston : The Mystic River improvements include approximately 3-miles of multi-use paths from the confluence of Alewife Brook to Assemble Square in Somerville. Many antiquated facilities will be addressed along with the main park furnishings along the Mystic Rive
- $5,720,000 : Belmont, Cambridge, Somerville : Bikeway Construction At Alewife Station, Includes Pedestrian Bridge
- $700,000 : Boston, Somerville : Charles River Dam & Amelia Earhart Dam & Navigation Locks Lighting Replacement. Installation of new lighting systems will benefit local contractors and their employees who will be afforded the opportunity to procure and install new energy-efficient luminaires, poles, traffic signals, and navigation lights. Suppliers of the parts necessary to complete this work will likewise experience the positive economic impacts of supplying the requisite parts.
- $8,200,000 : Boston, Cambridge, Somerville : Grand Junction – Track Rehabilitation
- $4,620,000 : Somerville, Wilmington : GUIDE & TRAFFIC SIGN REPLACEMENT ON I-93, FROM SULLIVAN SQUARE (EXIT 28) TO ROUTE 129 (EXIT 38)
$163,615,000 in Somerville-specific, Not-Yet-Reviewed, Shovel-Ready Projects
- $500,000 : Amelia Erhart Dam Repair
- $1,025,000 : Brown School
- $53,500,000 : East Somerville Community School
- $20,450,000 : Powderhouse Community School
- $2,800,000 : Broadway in East Somerville
- $980,000 : Central Hill Park Renovation
- $2,000,000 : Kiley Barrell Clean Up
- $3,100,000 : Magoun Square
- $570,000 : Citywide WiFi
- $490,000 : Electronic Permitting and Financial System
- $56,000,000 : Assembly on the Mystic
- $22,200,000 : Assembly on the Mystic – Public Sewer Build required public sewer
loading…
How much of it are we likely to get?
loading...
What is most likely is funding for the Mayor’s pet project – the Mystic and amenities for the Ikea. And that has the LEAST community relevance. If the city had had any sense, since this “shovel ready” status has been yammered about for the past six months, they would have moved the East Somerville School way ahead, and broken at least SOME of the green line prep into shovel ready condition to get the MBTA trapped and committed. But that implies planning, and most of the planning for the past six months has been on Union Square Zoning, which has at least four years until there is a serious market.
loading...
Here, here Mr. Beckman.
I would be remiss if I let my chance go by and not put in my plug for Magoun Square.
Talk about shovel ready. A quick review of statements made not only by the Mayor but by the Alderman from Ward 5, indicates they promised the Magoun Square revitalization would be done in 2005, then 2006, then 2007, then 2008. The businesses and residents are still waiting.
It has been made very clear by this Administration that they have bet the city’s future on Union Square and Assembly Square.
I think to have such a limited portfolio of future growth is a very dangerous strategy.
loading...