Travis to use stimulus funds for projects

Travis to use stimulus funds for projects
By Ian Thompson | Daily Republic | March 23, 2009

TRAVIS AFB - More than $14.5 million in President Obama's stimulus package will be going to Travis Air Force Base for projects such as replacing the base's reservoir and installing a perimeter fence as an anti-terrorism security measure.

The projects at Travis are just a few of the 3,000-plus Department of Defense military construction and improvement projects being funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The cost of replacing Travis' reservoir will be $3.7 million. Other big projects will be replacing power lines at the cost of $4.8 million and repairing one of the base's dormitories.

Approximately $7.4 billion in defense-related funding was included in the stimulus package, and the Department of Defense announced the list of projects on Friday. Hospitals under construction at Camp Pendleton in Southern California and Fort Hood, Texas are the largest package.

More funding would be on the way.

'This is just one part of the spending package list,' said Solano County Supervisor Mike Reagan, a retired Air Force officer.

Several other agencies and local governments such as the Solano Transportation Authority and the Solano County Sheriff's Office are in the process of getting some stimulus funding.

Reagan called the amount of Travis' funding a nice amount of repair and construction money.

'It is operations maintenance money and that is what's always scarce,' he said.

The City of Fairfield is also getting federal funding unrelated to the stimulus package for its Place 2 Be After Three after-school program and its transportation center.

The 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed by Obama includes $190,000 for the Place 2 Be After Three and $475,000 to begin designing the Fairfield Transportation Center's second parking structure.

Earlier this month, members of the Fairfield City Council traveled to Washington, D.C., to lobby for projects. In addition to The Place 2 Be After Three, the list of projects included air conditioning for the Matt Garcia Youth Center, creation of an emergency operations center and closed-circuit TVs on North Texas Street.

Reach Ian Thompson at 427-6976 or at ithompson@dailyrepublic.net.