Summit Stimulus, Color and Shape

As the requests for stimulus dollars stack up the State of Ohio is already announcing some of the first project awards. More on that Akron Y Bridge Fencing later.

I wanted to take a basic high level look at the requests originating from the localities in Summit County. I think the color and shape of what locals are asking for points to the dire need for infrastructure revitalization. So I grabbed the latest download from the State and set off to flesh out some of the major trends.

The data is available as an excel file, still no true mash-up from the State or any other entity.

Presently there are $1.33 billion in requests from local governments in Summit County. This number does not include the Akron Public Schools, the University of Akron or non profits. The real meat and potatoes so far has been infrastructure projects. As can be seen from this handy pie chart I conjured from the Recovery.Ohio data.

A full two thirds of the requests are for good old fashioned roads, bridges, water, sewer and other main line infrastructure. What does this mean? Probably that there is great need to rebuild the decaying mess that we have depended on to support civilized society. If the Romans had functioning sewers shouldn't we?

I also wanted to see what some specific locals have requested. The next table is a brief look at some select areas of Summit County have asked for in federal stimulus dollars.

Local Government	$'s Requested	$'s Per Capita
Summit County	1,333,056,220	2,453
Akron	679,664,346	3,089
Cuyahoga Falls	139,257,132	2,785
Green	51,100,031	2,222
Stow	11,960,312	374

The requests for Summit County include the County government and all other local governments. Akron takes up more than half of all requests in the county. Akron's requests include some behemoths like the central interchange improvement project that could top $50 million. Adding the APS requests to Akron would push that per capita number up.

The per capita numbers were based on the 2007 Census Bureau population estimates. I'd say political leanings do not make a discernible difference when it comes to requesting ARRA dollars. If your name is Don you'll take the money.

If I have the time I'll try to do some more slicing and dicing of the actual approved dollars as they roll in.