Funds would create jobs with both short- and long-term opportunities
Metro and regional leaders are appealing to Oregon's senators to support new stimulus funds for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act after initial funding helped put more than 3,000 Oregonians to work creating $40,764,255 in wages in the Portland metropolitan region.
Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette, chair of the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT), has sent a letter to Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley on behalf of JPACT requesting the senators' support for a continuation of the Recovery Act at a time when Oregon's unemployment rate is still among the highest in the nation.
"With Oregon's unemployment rate hovering around 10%, the need is immediate. With new funding, we are prepared to deliver quality projects with both short and long-term economic benefits," Collette said in the letter.
Congress enacted the original Recovery Act in February 2009 to quickly spur economic activity as well as immediately create or save jobs. Within eleven and a half months, Metro and its transportation partners put $132 million into action on more than 60 "shovel ready" projects which proved essential to the region's economy. Those projects included highway widening and safety enhancements, better traffic flow, street paving, increased pedestrian access and safety upgrades as well as transit and high-speed rail improvements. The projects also put thousands of people to work, kept companies in operation and sparked additional economic opportunities.
For example, a Gresham project to widen and create sidewalks along 242nd Ave. helped to prepare an adjacent 64 acres of industrial land for development, an improvement that would have normally been the responsibility of the developer. Moore Excavation, an east Multnomah County company, was awarded the contract.
"Some companies are facing hard times," said project manager Jeff Shelley of the City of Gresham. "The stimulus funding definitely allowed local contractors and subcontractors to continue working."
Members of JPACT will make their annual visit to Oregon's Washington, DC delegation in March to pursue funding for a targeted list of critical transportation projects throughout the region.
The Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) is a 17-member committee that provides a forum for elected officials and representatives of agencies involved in transportation to evaluate transportation needs in the region and to make recommendations to the Metro Council.
Metro, the regional government that serves 1.5 million people who live in the 25 cities and three counties of the Portland metropolitan area, provides planning and other services that protect the nature and livability of our region.