I-JOBS board awards $118.5 million to local projects

WATERLOO – A state panel awarded $118.5 million in bond proceeds to local infrastructure projects, with Linn, Johnson and Black Hawk counties receiving two-thirds of those funds.

Members of an I-JOBS Board review panel approved applications for 58 projects to share in the $118.5 million in state grants that Gov. Chet Culver and the Legislature made available to local governmental or nonprofit entities on a competitive basis. Those funds represent roughly 15 percent of the $830 million I-JOBS program, a point Chairman Jeff Pomeranz emphasized to those communities that had projects not funded.

“This is not the end. We hope this is just the first round,” he said, adding that the board is hoping the Legislature appropriate more money for I-JOBS projects.

Communities, whether their project was approved or not, will soon see the benefits of the program that is funding both disaster recovery and other infrastructure needs, Pomeranz said.

Waterloo Mayor Tim Hurley seconded that, saying that regardless of whether communities were on the list of approved projects, they will benefit from the infusion of bond dollars to create jobs and rebuild disaster-impacted communities.

“We've done this the Iowa way, with foresight, introspection and partnership,” Hurley said in welcoming the board to Waterloo. “What's good for one is good for all in the end.”

However, Scott County communities didn't share that all-for-one philosophy. Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin expressed concern that neither of the community's applications -- $3 million for modernizing a 1902 fire station nor $1 million for its baseball park – were funded.

“Our greatest concern is that the I-JOBS dollars will be spent on projects that are truly sustainable … not one that is revisited after the next disaster,” he said.

State Sen. David Hartsuch, R-Bettendorf, was more pointed, telling the board he was struck by the “preponderance of money to Linn and Johnson counties.”

Scott County, he said, “essentially got nothing from this process.” By concentrating the funding in one geographic area the state is creating a scarcity of contractors in other communities, including Scott County, he said. That's driving up the costs of construction there.

However, Sen. Bob Dvorsky, D-Coralville, responded that he thought the board had followed the Legislature's intent in treating communities with fairness and balance.

The recommendations appeared to him to be based on need, Dvorsky said. It was not because of a lack of need that some applications were not approved, he said, but “because they didn't score as well as others.”

Pomeranz defended the review process and the board's decision. He encouraged Scott County to continue to apply for I-JOBS funds and repeated his hope there is another round of funding for the program.

“It's a big state. There are lots of needs,” he said. “This is not the end here.

Approved applications came from all four quadrants of the state for a mix of projects, but more than half of the allocated funds were designated primarily for flood recovery efforts in Linn and Johnson counties.

Coralville received the single largest grant -- $27 million toward a $36 million project for flood recovery and protection of the city's 1st Avenue corridor along the Iowa River.

The board also approved two non-competitive grants for fire stations in Palo and Charles City that were damaged by last year's flood disaster.

The program – part of an overall $830 million I-JOBS bonding package -- was allocated $165 million for disaster recovery and prevention and for local infrastructure, with $118.5 million to be distributed on a competitive basis while the remaining $46.5 million was earmarked for specific disaster-related projects by lawmakers.