Log In | Register
John Brecher / msnbc.com
Troy Scott, left, and Marnell Johnson prepare forms to pour concrete for new sidewalks on Division Street in Elkhart, a project funded by federal stimulus money.
Can't see that stimulus effect yet? You’re not alone.
A USA Today/Gallup Poll released this week found that 57 percent of adults said the stimulus package is either having no impact on the economy or making it worse.
But some of that skepticism may come from looking for the spectacular – such as soaring bridges or solar energy projects – rather than the mundane.
Case in point: Elkhart residents are getting new sidewalks, thanks to nearly $200,000 in stimulus funds the city received through the Community Development Block Grant program administered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In front of 144 Division St., off Main Street in Elkhart, at 8:45 Wednesday morning, city workers Troy Scott, 46, and Marnell Johnson, 25, were digging out tree roots and preparing the dirt bed for a new section of sidewalk that will be poured later this week. Scott is a temporary employee, while Johnson is permanent.
Elkhart Street Commissioner Marty Morgan said the stimulus funds have allowed him to keep five part-time and two full-time workers that the city otherwise would have had to let go.
“I’m glad the Street Department gave me a chance,” said Scott, who was laid off last year by local recreational vehicle maker Keystone in nearby Goshen.
“Seeing the final project makes you proud,” said Scott, who is married and has four children. “Knowing you can say, ‘I did that.’”
But even such a simple infrastructure improvement isn’t free of controversy.
Dan Taylor, a retiree who lives just across the street from where Johnson and Scott were working, voiced his unhappiness.
“I think it should be a local government responsibility,” he said. “… I’m going to pay it back eventually – or my kids are. How am I going to pay it back? We don’t want to end up being a Third World nation and we’re borrowing that money from China and the Islamic world. I mean it’s a little scary.”
Taylor also criticized the quality of the work already done farther up the block, saying the sidewalk surface is uneven and that the workers had damaged the old limestone curb with their small Bobcat earthmover. “If you paid someone to do this work at your house, you wouldn’t accept it,” he complained.
Stimulus money also landed this week at the Heart City Health Center, where Rep. Joe Donnelly, D- Ind., showed up Tuesday to tout the awarding of $187,000 in money from the Recovery Act by the Department of Health and Human Services under its Increased Demand for Services program. (Click here to read the Elkhart Truth’s article on the money.)
The clinic’s patient load -- mostly low-income, uninsured people – is expected to increase from 7,200 last year to 10,000 this year.
The stimulus money will enable the clinic to keep one doctor on the payroll who would have been laid off and recruit another primary care physician.
The stimulus is also giving the health center a half million dollars for construction.
“We’ll add seven new exam rooms to allow us to see patients in a timely manner,” said Heart City Health Center CEO Vernita Todd. Construction starts next month. “Our waiting time for new patients was two months; now we’ll get new patients in in 72 hours.”
Previous reporting on the stimulus impact:
At last, a stimulus sighting in Elkhart
Start Tracking
Stop Tracking