Earmarks: Transportation, Housing & Urban Development

Project:  Blair Bypass,  South Corridor
Name of Recipient:  City  of Blair
Location of Recipient:  Blair,  Nebraska
Purpose:  For the design and construction of the  Blair Bypass south corridor for highway safety.
Amount  Requested: $2.5  million
Taxpayer  Interest: The Blair Bypass is to serve as a bypass route around the City of Blair to reduce through traffic from U.S. 30 and U.S. 75, especially truck traffic, in the urban area and to alleviate associated traffic congestion and safety problems.  Traffic studies have indicated a need for bypass routes to the south, east and north of Blair to relieve traffic on major streets in the urban center of the city, particularly along Washington Street in Blair, Nebraska.

Project:  Education &  Interactive Learning Center
Name of Recipient: Heritage  Services
Purpose:  To construct an 80,000 square foot,  multi-level facility that will accommodate an Education and Interactive  Learning Center. 
Amount  Requested:  $3  million
Taxpayer  Interest:  Expands educational opportunities and  improves education facilities within the City of Omaha.

Project:   Highway 83  Expressway Corridor Location Study
Name of Recipient:  McCook  Economic Development
Location of Recipient:   McCook,  Nebraska
Purpose:  To fund a highway Corridor Location Study for U.S. Highway 83 between the Kansas state line south of McCook Nebraska to North Platte Nebraska, to determine the economic value of developing a 4-lane expressway on the route.
Amount  Requested: $1  million
Taxpayer  Interest: Improvement of this roadway will stimulate economic growth in Southwest Nebraska. Because there is a distance of over 330 miles between 4 lane routes connecting Interstates 70 and 80, and given the extreme traffic congestion north and south on I-25 in Colorado, it is believed that there is pent-up demand for an alternative route between these interstates particularly for trucks.

Project:  Events Center  for a Rural Economy
Name of Recipient: Mid-Plains  Community College
Location of Recipient:    McCook,  Nebraska
Purpose: To build a new Events Center that  supports rural economic development and activity in southwestern Nebraska.
Amount  Requested: $2  million
Taxpayer  Interest:  This facility will increase the capacity at Mid-Plains Community College in McCook to host speakers, workshops and conferences while promoting rural economic development and improving student recruitment and retention efforts.

Project:   College Center  at South Sioux City Initative
Name of Recipient: Wayne State College
Location of Recipient:  South  Sioux City, Nebraska
Purpose:   For development and construction of the  College Center at South Sioux City.
Amount  Requested:  $1,000,000
Taxpayer  Interest: Dakota and Thurston counties are two of only four Nebraska counties identified as having the most critical level of education need.  Access to affordable, public, post-secondary education and workforce development training in these two counties and the immediate surrounding area has not kept pace with demand.  This project will meet the educational needs of the population in these two counties and the surrounding area, as well as education and workforce development needs of employers and employees.

Project: Malone  Homeownership Zone
Name of Recipient:  NeighborWorks  Lincoln
Location of Recipient:    Lincoln,  Nebraska
Purpose:   For redevelopment of the Malone Neighborhood, the Antelope Valley Redevelopment Area, the neighborhood business districts, and the City of Lincoln as a whole.
Amount  Requested: $2  million
Taxpayer  Interest:  The funds requested will serve as a major catalyst in the redevelopment of the Malone Neighborhood, the Antelope Valley Redevelopment Area, the neighborhood business districts, and the City of Lincoln as a whole.  The funds will serve to achieve 3 national objectives as determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development: benefiting low and moderate-income persons; preventing or eliminating blight; meeting other community development needs through overall neighborhood revitalization.

Project:  Panhandle  Regional Business Incubator
Name of Recipient:  Panhandle  Area Development District
Location of Recipient: Gering,  Nebraska
Purpose:  To remodel an existing building into a  physical and virtual small business incubator to serve the Panhandle of  Nebraska
Amount  Requested:  $650,000
Taxpayer Interest: This project will facilitate rural economic development and provide new entrepreneurial and financial education opportunities in the panhandle.

Updated 6.11.09