Press Release
Congressman John W. Olver
1111 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2101
Tel: 202-225-5335
Fax: 202-226-1224
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2009
Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations Requests
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Many constituents are interested in federal appropriations requests, or "earmarks," and how they work. The responsible application of earmarked funds, federal resources designated for local projects of high public purpose, can have widespread benefits for our communities, our state, and our nation.
In making such requests, my office seeks to use taxpayer dollars prudently, considering cost-benefit analyses and community support. These requests may support renewable energy, higher education, health care and medical research, military construction, environmental protection, infrastructure, and transportation initiatives that have regional and national benefits.
The federal appropriations process is lengthy and complicated, involving 12 separate bills. In compliance with House Appropriations Committee rules and in order to make the process as transparent as possible, I am posting all of my earmark requests on this website.
For your information, below is a list of the earmarks I requested from the House Appropriations Committee for Fiscal Year 2010, categorized by applicable Appropriations Bill. Projects are listed under each bill in alphabetical order.
Agriculture
- Community Involved in Sustained Agriculture’s Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program
Address: 1 Sugarloaf St, South Deerfield, MA 01373
Description: This funding will support and expand CISA’s Senior FarmShare program, which provides a bag of fresh, locally grown produce once a week for 10 weeks to income-eligible senior citizens in western Massachusetts, enhancing their health while expanding markets for local farmers.
Amount: $200,000
- UMass-Amherst's Department of Food Science’s Bioactive Foods Research for Health and Food Safety
Address: Amherst, MA 01003
Description: To develop a nationally and internationally recognized Center for Health and Wellness for the development, assessment, and implementation of bioactive components specifically designed to promote human health, wellness, and safety through food intervention.
Amount: $525,000
- UMass-Amherst’s Department of Natural Resources Conservation’s Prioritizing and Protecting our Ecological Common Wealth
Address: Amherst, MA 01003
Description: Project will integrate new software tools and mapping approaches to help town managers and residents prioritize the most strategic parcels of land in their towns for protection and conservation. A parallel outreach component of the project will focus on creating and training a network of local residents to work with NGOs and state agencies to implement these conservation measures.
Amount: $470,000
Commerce, Justice, Science
- Berkshire South Regional Community Center’s Action Adventures Out-of-School Anti Bullying Project
Address: 15 Crissey Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230
Description: Working with students ages 5-17, this Project will address the complex behaviors relating to bullying as well as the underlying risk factors and their role in bullying behavior. It will address skill development in conflict management, confidence building, better and different ways of communicating, mediation and community involvement.
Amount: $135,000
- North Worcester County Drug Task Force’s Interoperable Credentialing, Crime Scene and Access Control Project
Address: PO Box G, Hubbardston, MA 01452
Description: The North Worcester County Drug Task Force (NWCDTF) is a consortium of nine municipal law enforcement agencies (Gardner, Westminster, Fitchburg, Winchendon, Ashburnham, Lunenburg, Leominster, Hubbardston, and Clinton). NWCDTF seeks to leverage existing and emerging technologies to provide a single, nationally interoperable and scaleable credential that provides controlled access to their combined secure facilities for all its consortium agencies.
Amount: $400,000
- Orange Police Department’s Implementation of the Training Active Bystanders Program and Enhancing Community Policing, Athol, Orange, Fitchburg, Greenfield, Holyoke and Pittsfield
Address: 400 E River St, Orange, MA 01364
Description: The Orange Police Department will implement a Training Active Bystanders (TAB) curriculum which engages youth and adults in intergenerational teams of volunteer trainers, reduces violence and bullying in schools by 20 percent, and develops leadership and a sense of responsibility to help others.
Amount: $622,000
- United Way of North Central’s Engaging Youth for Success
Address: 285 John Fitch Highway, Suite 1, Fitchburg, MA 01420
Description: This project seeks to expand the engagement of high school students in their community through entrepreneurial community projects, while Mount Wachusett Community College's Citizenship Academy provides high school students access to college credits, civic engagement and community service. Combined, these programs seek to achieve the goal of having 20 percent of students in the region gain access to life-enhancing experiences through these two programs within three years.
Amount: $350,000
- UMass-Amherst’s Climate System Research Center
Address: Amherst, MA 01003
Description: This funding will allow the Center to strengthen and expand its research through a small number of graduate and post-doctoral appointments, forming several “research clusters”, each one led by a well-established and nationally visible faculty member at the University. Through this approach, the University’s contributions to national science priorities will be enhanced, and a core group of new researchers will be trained to address critical climate change issues.
Amount: $750,000
- U-Mass-Amherst’s Large Millimeter Telescope
Address: Amherst, MA 01003
Description: The LMT is an important international astronomy project that involves shared support between the US and Mexico. Its value to the university and many American scientists is substantial because it involves the development of several new technologies. When completed it will employ scientists and technicians at the university’s campus and will encourage economic development among US industries in general and among several high-tech companies in western Massachusetts.
Amount: $750,000
Defense
- DRS’ Advanced Steam Turbine
Address: 166 Boulder Drive, Suite 201 E, Fitchburg, MA 01420
Description: This project will fund the development of a low-cost steam turbine engine that can be used on existing and future submarine platforms. The Advanced Steam Turbine (AST) is estimated to reduce the cost the Navy is paying today by as much as 40 percent.
Amount: $2,500,000
- Fosta-Tek Optics’ Lightweight Polymer Designs for Soldier Combat Optics
Address: 320 Hamilton Street, Leominster, MA 01453
Description: This project will finance the development of specialty combat optics for our military made out of low-cost polymers that can withstand the harsh conditions our armed forces currently face in Iraq and Afghanistan. If succesfully developed this technology will significantly enhance our force capabilities.
Amount: $1,500,000
- General Dynamics’ Autonomous Acoustic Array Advanced Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell
Address: 100 Plastics Avenue, Pittsfield, MA 01201
Description: This project will fund the development of an Advanced Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell for use on Navy combat ships. This technology provides multiple advantages ideal for extended, autonomous operation including rapid start-up, high efficiency, durability, low maintenance, simplicity and demonstrated performance on a variety of readily available fuels.
Amount: $2,000,000
- Headwall Photonics’ Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate
Address: 601 River Street, Fitchburg, MA 01420
Description: This project will develop a new class of miniature high performance hyperspectral imaging sensors for deployment on small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) platforms. With the deployment of hyperspectral imaging platforms on UAVs/SUGVs there will exist a key strategic platform for surveillance and monitoring military regions of interest, border patrol and interdiction, chemical and biological threat assessment, search and rescue operations, and environmental monitoring and assessment. Hyperspectral sensors (also known as chemical imaging sensors) provide war fighters with unique capabilities that are not available with traditional forms of imagery such as high quality digital video or thermal imaging.
Amount: $2,500,000
- Mass CRESTs’ Development of Enabling Chemical Technologies for Power from Green Sources
Address: University of Massachusetts, 710 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003
Description: A collaborative effort among chemists, physicists, polymer scientists, and engineers under the umbrella organization at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mass- CREST, will develop green technologies that will assist in “Powering the Future Warfighter”. The Center will also have an impact on economic development by rapidly translating cutting-edge research into valuable and marketable processes, techniques, and technologies that will lead to business development and job creation.
Amount: $1,500,000
- Mzeal’s Dynamically Managed Data Dissemination (DMDD)
Address: 180 Boulder Drive, Suite 108, Fitchburg, MA 01420
Description: The infrastructure of today’s commercial wireless communications allows for easy interaction with laptops, cell phones and small hand held devices. However, in the Army battlefield the commercial infrastructure does not exist - cell phone towers and fiber optic telephone line are not part of the battlefield communication network. This causes extreme communication constrains which will be addressed by this project, which will provide real-time data of enemy movement to those in harms way, increase battle command & control communications, and reduce and avoid bandwidth bottlenecking in net-centric warfare.
Amount: $1,500,000
- Springboard CIM’s Injection Molded Ceramic Body Armor
Address: 283 Cheshire Road, Pittsfield, MA 01201
Description: The goal of this project is to develop the manufacturing technology needed to produce the next generation of body armor for the U.S Army’s Future Force Warrior (FFW) Program. Currently, our combat soldiers’ armor protection is limited to the front and back of the torso, while other vital areas (i.e. head, torso sides, and limbs) remain exposed to serious injury. This limitation is due to the inability of manufacturers to reliably produce lightweight, complex shaped, advanced ceramic components in a consistent, cost effective manner. The Springboard CIM manufacturing technology has demonstrated the ability to provide complex shaped, advanced ceramic armor material components in a uniquely reliable manner, making complete head to toe protection a viable goal.
Amount: $1,000,000
- Trex Enterprises’ Brownout Situational Awareness Sensor
Address: 164 West Street, West Hatfield, MA 01088
Description: Brownout is a condition created by helicopter rotor downwash as landing aircraft approach touchdown. This funding would continue Trex Enterprise’s previous development and flight testing of the Brownout Situational Awareness Sensor (BSAS). Specifically, sensors developed to-date will be modified to optimize cockpit awareness according to the results of pilot evaluations in flight tests and other human factors testing conducted in 2009; modular components will be hardened to function in extreme helicopter vibration environments; system platform integration will continue; and initial cockpit display design will begin. Fielding of a Brownout sensor will preclude loss of aviator lives, reduce maintenance requirements resulting from damaged aircraft, and help sustain the air war effort on two fronts, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Amount: $2,000,000
- Triton Systems and Micro Abrasives Corp.’s Moldable Ceramic Composite for Tactical Vehicle Protection
Address: Triton: 200 Turnpike Road, Chelmsford, MA 01828; Micro Abrasives: 720 Southampton Road, Westfield, MA 01086
Description: The purpose of this funding is to design an easily moldable and adhesive material with superior resistance to ballistic penetration that will fill two critical needs in current and future military systems. This technology will improve in-theater up-armoring of complex vehicle shapes and in field armor repair of light tactical vehicles. A first generation solution has already been developed, a pliable ceramic composite incorporating advanced ceramic nuggets in a custom engineered polymer adhesive. Envisioned for repair of light tactical vehicle armor, this concept has already passed preliminary evaluation by the Army TRADOC BDAR/R group. Micro Abrasives and TSI, using their respective expertise in advanced ceramics and ballistic protection technology, will collaborate to adapt this basic concept to conformal armor applications, as well as next generation armor repair methods for heavier combat vehicles and more severe threats.
Amount: $1,500,000
- U-Mass Amherst’s Center for the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere’s (CASA) Radar Network Safety Infrastructure
Address: 209 Knowles Engineering Building, 151 Holdsworth Way, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01003
Description: This project will fund research into a radar network infrastructure for improved surveillance of weather hazards. CASA, an NSF Engineering Research Center, is pioneering technology which networks low-power, lower-cost Doppler radars to overcome considerable surveillance gaps related to the curvature of the earth. This innovative technology is extensible to missile defense and the detection of low flying planes and UAVs.
Amount: $1,500,000
Energy and Water
- Army Corps of Engineer’s Feasibility Study to Evaluate the Removal and Cleanup of the Mill Street Dam
Address: 26 Federal Plaza, Room 2109, New York, NY 10278
Description: This project will provide a feasibility study for the removal of the Mill Street dam. Removal of the dam will improve natural stream conditions, facilitate movement of resident aquatic species, improve water quality and enhance public access along the West Branch of the Housatonic River.
Amount: $100,000
- Baystate Franklin Medical Center's Solar Hot Water Heating System
Address: 164 High Street, Greenfield, MA 01301
Description: The installation of a roof-top solar hot water heater will enable Baystate Franklin Medical Center to reduce its dependence upon fossil fuels, thereby contributing to the national effort to become more energy independent, reducing the generation of greenhouse gases, and saving the hospital money. The estimated annual system energy savings is projected to be 2,750 gallons of fuel oil, allowing the hospital to provide additional medical services to the community.
Amount: $65,000
- Greenfield Community College’s Hybrid Geo-thermal Modification Design Project
Address: One College Drive, Greenfield, MA 01301
Description: Greenfield Community College will plan and install a hybrid geo-thermal heat pump application that will meet the heating system needs of the entire main campus building. This “standing column” system will also provide a model application for the integration of geo-thermal curriculum development with the GCC Sustainable/Renewable Energy programs, offering credit for the academic programs and non-credit for the community education and workforce development programs.
Amount: $525,000
- Mt. Wachusett Community College’s Wind project
Address: 444 Green Street, Gardner, MA 01440
Description: This project will assist Mount Wachusett Community College to install a wind turbine on campus. This will lessen the College’s dependence on the electrical grid, reduce its carbon footprint, and provide a teaching tool for its students. The College will document the processes and procedures required for regional partners to replicate their wind turbine construction. In effect, this will serve as a template to identify the necessary components for wind development in the region, such as permitting, wind resource and site assessment, and financing options.
Amount: $1,000,000
- Qteros’ Cellulosic Ethanol Pilot Project
Address: 100 Campus Drive, Marlborough, MA 01752
Description: This project proposes to design and build a pilot bio-reactor plant to demonstrate that the solid waste product from a paper mill can be converted into a clean transportation fuel. The bio-reactor will utilize the long-cell cellulosic fiber waste as the feed stock for a novel microbial process, known as Consolidated Bio-processing, to convert this waste material directly to ethanol, at lower cost than the conventional two-stage ethanol production process. Additionally, this project will dramatically reduce the amount of solid waste currently being disposed of in a landfill in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Amount: $2,800,000
- River Museum Inc.’s Net-Zero-Energy Housatonic River Museum
Address: PO Box 574, Pittsfield, MA 01202
Description: This project with reduce the Housatonic River Museum's energy consumption by approximately 50% and allow the Museum to satisfy its remaining needs through on-site renewable energy generation. The Housatonic River Museum will join seven other commercial buildings in the country listed by the U.S. Department of Energy as zero-energy and will be the first of its kind on the East Coast, expanding the frontier of responsible building.
Amount: $1,000,000
- Trustee’s of Hampshire College Installation of a Solar Canopy
Address: 893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002
Description: This project will support the structural renovation and installation of a new 36 KW solar photovoltaic array (producing at least 47 mwh of electricity annually) at Hampshire College. This solar canopy, a visible symbol of sustainable energy efforts at the college, will serve as a resource for outreach activities involving students in the surrounding communities and provide data for classes investigating solar energy and renewable technologies, including cell efficiency, energy production, return on investment, and the reduction of the college’s carbon footprint.
Amount: $534,000
- UMass Amherst’s Integrative Science Building
Address: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003
Description: The purpose of the ISB is to provide University faculty and students with a state-of-the-art science facility where both instruction and research in the chemical and biological sciences can be conducted effectively. As such, the facility will contribute immensely to the institution’s mission of teaching and research, and it will enhance the Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Initiative, the research collaboration between the University and Baystate Medical Center.
Amount: $2,000,000
Financial Services
- Western Massachusetts Enterprise Fund’s Financial and Technical Assistance for Development Enterprises
Address: 4 Open Square Way, Suite 407, Holyoke, MA 01040
Description: This project will assist the Western Massachusetts enterprise Fund in providing credit to individuals and small businesses across western Massachusetts. Due to the current economic conditions globally, nationally, and locally, WMEF is seeing an unprecedented increase in demand for loan products. WMEF's current resources are strained as demand on staff to provide technical assistance to portfolio loan clients and business owners increases.
Amount: $1,000,000
Homeland Security
- Franklin Regional Council of Governments’ Update the Franklin County Regional Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan
Address: 425 Main Street, Greenfield, MA 01301
Description: The project will update the Franklin County Regional Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan and 21 local annexes to allow the region and communities to continue their work to address both natural hazards, such as ice storms, and man-made hazards in a comprehensive fashion. This is a good use of taxpayer funds because an updated Hazard Mitigation plan will allow the Franklin Regional Council of Governments to help communities to identify specific projects that they can undertake to better prevent property damage and protect public safety during disasters.
Amount: $215,520
- Town of Lanesborough’s, Putnam Road Reconstruction Project
Address: Town of Lanesborough, MA 01237
Description: This project will completely reconstruct the road crossing over Town Brook in Lanesborough and stabilize the stream bank, allowing the safe passage of both civilian and emergency vehicles and maintaining the nearby town's water quality. This is a good use of taxpayer funds because it will provide for the stabilization of a bridge currently rated as failing, one on which many of the town’s emergency personnel rely. The reconstruction of the bridge will also protect the water quality of the brook which it crosses, and which is in turn the Town of Lanesborough’s main water supply.
Amount: $150,000
- UMass-Amherst's Office of Environmental Health and Safety’s Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan
Address: Amherst, MA 01301
Description: U-Mass will develop a multi-hazard mitigation plan which will include: identifying and evaluating regional and campus specific risks and vulnerabilities, increasing emergency cooperation with community partners, and developing strategies to minimize the impact of hazards on the University's operations. This is a good use of taxpayer funds because the creation of a multi-hazard mitigation plan will help the University to protect its students and to minimize the impact of natural and man-made hazards on the University’s ability to function.
Amount: $143,400
Interior and Environment
- Hancock Shaker Village’s Restoration of Trustee's Office
Address: 34 Lebanon Mt. Rd., Hancock, MA 01225
Description: The work proposed by this project entails extensive exterior stabilization work to this National Historic Landmark, including installing a new roof and gutter drainage system, reconstructing completely rotted porches, resetting stone steps and surrounding walkways to restore them to their proper pitch to promote required drainage, rebuilding rotted building supports in the cellar, addressing drainage on all sides of the building, including earthwork to redirect standing water, and repair of rotted sash, door sills and entranceways.
Amount: $600,000
- Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Connecticut River Combined Sewer Overflow Clean-up
Address: 26 Central Street, West Springfield, MA 01089
Description: The Massachusetts communities of Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, Ludlow and South Hadley are under EPA Administrative Orders to cleanup 72 combined sewer overflows (CSOs), which discharge over 1,500 million gallons of effluent per year to the Connecticut River and its tributaries. Funding will be used for construction or engineering of projects to directly reduce or eliminate combined sewer overflows (CSOs) to the Connecticut River in the five participating communities.
Amount: $2,000,000
- Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP)
Address: 1522 K St., NW, Ste. 400, Washington, DC 20005
Description: Small communities often lack the oversight capacity and technical expertise to handle the complexities of maintaining a safe and clean supply of water. Furthermore, small systems lack financial resources and depend on government loan and grant funds to meet infrastructure needs. The RCAP network works in coordination with state primary agencies to target technical assistance and training to communities smaller than 3,300. RCAP trains local elected officials on regulatory responsibilities under the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act, capacity development assistance on financial, technical and managerial aspects of operating water and wastewater systems in compliance with federal regulations, and assists with planning, developing and managing new and existing water or wastewater treatment facilities to meet regulatory requirements.
Amount: $5,000,000
- Silvio O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Lab’s Conte Anadromous Fish Research Lab
Address: 1 Migratory Way, Turners Falls, Massachusetts 01376
Description: The requested funding will support ongoing basic and applied USGS research for the improved management of habitat for endangered fish species, fish passage, natural resources, and ultimately the economy and environment of the Connecticut River watershed and Long Island Sound.
Amount: $220,000
- Trust for Public Land in partnership with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Conte Refuge
Address: 660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE #401, Washington, DC, 20003
Description: The Conte Refuge has identified Special Focus Areas where it may purchase, or cooperate with public or private partners, to purchase and protect important and available parcels. This project is to acquire the 32-acre Fort River IV (Haluszczak/Champagne) tract in the Fort River Division of the Conte Refuge, prioritized by the Service as prime grassland bird habitat and part of a mosaic with active farmland, an important stretch of the Fort River, and a public water supply area. This Massachusetts request is in conjunction with the broader, four-state Conte Refuge request.
Amount: $1,400,000
- Trustees of Reservations’ Stockbridge Mission House
Address: P.O. Box 792, 1 Sargeant Street, Stockbridge, MA 01262
Description: To preserve this National Historic Landmark, the project calls for architectural conservation of the 18th century Connecticut River Valley doorway and clapboards; installation of environmental controls; conservation of selected furniture and textiles, and re-roofing the adjacent barn. The Indian Museum’s exhibits will be updated and environmental controls installed.
Amount: $117,000
Labor, HHS, Education
- Athol Memorial Hospital’s Purchase of an Electronic Medical Record System
Address: 2033 Main Street, Athol, MA 01331
Description: The project would create a computerized medical record system that will help the hospital to focus on patient safety and communication and thus will help the hospital improve patient care. Patients throughout the nine-town North Quabbin area rely on Athol Hospital, and these investments will move the hospital towards EMR improvements required by 2012, the deadline imposed by Massachusetts.
Amount: $300,000
- Boys and Girls Club of North Central MA’s Community Science Workshop
Address: 365 Lindell Avenue, Leominster, MA 01453
Description: The project would seek to establish a community science workshop, CSW, for north central Massachusetts located within the Boys & Girls Club of North Central MA. This is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because the CSW would enhance STEM education for schools, public and private, in north central Massachusetts that are not able to offer extensive science programming. Through afterschool programming, the workshop will help with the practical application of lessons taught in the classroom and offer participation in activities that reinforce the skills and knowledge students learn in school.
Amount: $95,000
- Community Health Center of Franklin County’s Practice Management System Upgrade
Address: 338 Montague City Road, Turners Falls, MA 01376
Description: The overall goal of this project is the procurement, installation and implementation of a new integrated practice management system connecting all four CHC sites, replacing the current accounting and billing systems and introducing electronic systems to replace outmoded paper charts with electronic medical records (EMR) and computerized physician order entry (CPOE).
Amount: $250,000
- Heywood Hospital’s Acute Care and Emergency Center
Address: 242 Green Street, Gardner, MA 01440
Description: Heywood Hospital is undertaking an expansion project to create a new Acute Care and Emergency Center Building and expand their current Medical Oncology program space. These projects will enable the hospital to accommodate 10,000 more Emergency Department visits, reducing waiting times for Emergency Care. The project will also offer inpatients more private rooms for medical, telemetry, and ICU care. The current ER is sized for half the visits they receive. In addition, Heywood Hospital has over 1,000 employees in the community and would hire new staff and doctors along with the expanding the facility.
Amount: $400,000
- Holyoke Medical Center’s Clinical Equipment Project
Address: 575 Beech Street, Holyoke, MA 01040
Description: This request will fund necessary clinical equipment and technology at Holyoke Medical Center including digital mammography equipment, a gamma camera, a digital echo, and a surgical digital video system. Onsite digital mammography equipment, the major equipment in this request and now recognized as the accepted standard of care, will save time in making accurate diagnosis and delivering treatment.
Amount: $400,000
- Horizons for Homeless Children, Western Region Playspace Programs Office’s Playspace Program
Address: 4 Open Square Way, Suite 132, Holyoke, MA 01040
Description: Funding will purchase and install playspace equipment in 14 district shelters, as well as train and deploy volunteers to provide nurturing, stimulating play opportunities for the children in the shelters. The program is a valuable use of taxpayer funds because it provides homeless children in shelters with the opportunity to benefit from developmentally-appropriate play opportunities, and mitigating the harmful lifelong impact of homelessness on those children.
Amount: $100,000
- Norman Rockwell Museum’s Project NORMAN Collection Digitization Initiative
Address: 9 Glendale Road, Route 183, Stockbridge, MA 01262
Description: Norman Rockwell Museum proposes to advance digitization of its most frequently requested collection: Rockwell's personal and business correspondence, more than 99 cubic feet of material relevant to all aspects of the artist's professional career. When complete, digitization of the Correspondence Collection will advance scholarship about Rockwell's life and work, preserve the Collection in the database for posterity, and provide easy access for Museum staff as well as students, researchers, scholars, and others as the Collection becomes accessible online via a searchable format on the museum’s Website. This project will also link the museum’s collections to other major collections around the country, and enhancing public awareness of Rockwell and his significant impact on American 20th Century art.
Amount: $150,000
- South Berkshire Educational Collaborative
Address: 662 Stockbridge Rd, Great Barrington, MA 01230
Description: The intent of the project is to provide support to the school districts of Berkshire County in three areas: 1) assistance in the implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI), a component of the IDEA legislation, 2) cooperative staff development for teachers and administrators in response to an ever increasing set of demands for accountability in student achievement and 3) provision of cooperative purchasing assistance for supplies and services. Through this collaborative, sharing resources, successes, and aggregate buying power, each of the 14 school districts in the collaborative could and save money and advance educational goals.
Amount: $250,000
Military Construction, VA
- Barnes Air National Guard Base’s F-15 Aircraft Ready Shelters
Address: 175 Falcon Drive, Westfield, MA, 01085
Description: This project is to construct three prefabricated metal double bay shelters for a total of 38,745 square feet on the existing ramp at Barnes Air National Guard Base. These temporary shelters will provide a workplace for maintenance and repairs while renovation work is being done on the main hanger which was constructed in the 1950s. When work on the main hanger is complete, these shelters will provide cover for aircraft during winter and inclement weather, increasing the opportunities for winter flying. Without these shelters there will be an increase in F-15 operating costs and a higher risk of potential pollutants associated with de-icing chemicals as well as aircraft fuel/de-fuel operations.
Amount: $13,000,000
State, Foreign Operations
- UMass-Amherst’s Institute of Global Health’s Capacity Building in Community-Based Chronic Disease Prevention in International Settings
Address: 102 Hasbrouk, University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA, 01003
Description: The project will provide skills and training to prepare the health care systems in Russia, Vietnam, and Ghana, three countries emerging from post-colonial social conditions, to address the "epidemiological transition," the emergence of chronic diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer) on top of the existing infectious disease control programs. The United States is the largest international economic aid donor in absolute dollar terms. By helping other countries develop health infrastructure we not only improve global health but ensure better use of US foreign assistance.
Amount: $1,500,000
Transportation, HUD
- Berkshire Community College Renewable Energy Resource Training Center
Address: 1350 West Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201
Description: This project will convert the existing RHEC into a Renewable Energy Resource Training Center consisting of classrooms, programmatically distinct laboratory configurations, a self-sustaining greenhouse, state-of-the-art computer hardware and software, and "green" technology instructional equipment. BCC is uniquely positioned to establish a training center due to its proximity to natural resources and adjacent conservation land, as well as the potential wind and solar energy sources due to its hillside location.
Amount: $1,150,000
- Berkshire Regional Transit Authority’s ITS Infrastructure and Equipment Improvements
Address: One Columbus Ave, Pittsfield, MA 01201
Description: The purpose of this project is to improve passenger transit amenities through technology: Automated Vehicle Location, Automated Passenger Counters, multilingual next stop Annunciator, and Computer Assisted Scheduling and Dispatch. These improvements would enable the traveling public to view the next bus arrival on a display board or via web-based laptop computers and cell phones, allow visually impaired passengers to know their exact location through announcements, and provide data for route planning and monitoring efficiencies. All 12 member communities receiving fixed route service would benefit, as well as the ADA, elderly, and veteran population served by paratransit vans.
Amount: $1,200,000
- City of Pittsfield’s Downtown Streetscaping Project from Columbus Ave. to Union Street
Address: 70 Allen St. Pittsfield, MA 01201
Description: Streetscape Phase 3 Project includes improvements to North Street, beginning at Columbus Avenue extending north to Union Street. The project scope includes total road construction with accent pavers at key intersections of Summer Street and Union Street, new streetlights, sidewalk reconstruction, paving and planting upgrades.
Amount: $500,000
- Community Transportation Association of America’s National Joblinks Program
Address: 1341 G St, NW, Washington, DC 20005
Description: The funding would be used to continue CTAA’s nationwide ride to work technical assistance and dial-a-ride service for employment, job training, education, medical care, and other quality of life services, as well as late night, early morning, and weekend service for work trips. The service is particularly important to individuals with disabilities, the elderly, the unemployed, underemployed and working poor.
Amount: $900,000
- Community Transportation Association of America’s National Joblinks Program
Address: 1341 G St, NW, Washington, DC 20005
Description: The funding would be used to continue CTAA’s nationwide ride to work technical assistance and dial-a-ride service for employment, job training, education, medical care, and other quality of life services, as well as late night, early morning, and weekend service for work trips. The service is particularly important to individuals with disabilities, the elderly, the unemployed, underemployed and working poor.
Amount: $1,500,000
- Federal Rail Administration’s Advanced Freight Locomotive Safety and Monitoring Systems Implementation
Address: 1200 New Jersey Ave, SE, Washington, DC 20590
Description: The Advanced Freight Locomotive Safety and Monitoring Systems Program is designed to increase the security of the lives, products, and goods transported across the United States via freight rail, a critical component of interstate and international commerce. The research involved in the system can also be used to improve operational efficiency, which has economic benefits.
Amount: $1,000,000
- Flight 93 National Memorial
Address: National Park Service, 109 West Main Street, Somerset, PA 15501
Description: This funding will be used for infrastructure needs resulting from the Flight 93 National Memorial.
Amount: $4,000,000
- Massachusetts Highway Department’s Advanced Traffic Management on I-91 Corridor
Address: 811 North King St., Northampton, MA 01060
Description: This Design Build (DB) project, to build a fiber optic cable backbone with spare conduit for economic development over 58 miles of I-91 and I-291,will be equipped with an Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) comprised of variable message signs, closed circuit television cameras, and other IT infrastructure. The ATMS will be linked to the MassHighway District 2 office, the MassHighway Traffic Operations Center in Boston, and to MA State Police Barracks in Northampton, Springfield, and Shelburne.
Amount: $2,500,000
- Massachusetts Highway Department’s Routes 2A and 32 Improvements
Address: 811 North King St., Northampton, MA 01060
Description: Reconstruction, expansion, and safety improvements of 7,000 linear feet of route 2A. Route 2A carries the burden of commercial, industrial, and vehicular traffic for the Towns of Athol and Orange and is the main road from which all other roadways are accessed. The specific area targeted already has a high volume of traffic and would facilitate traffic flow to a new, 300-acre industrial park.
Amount: $1,970,000
- Massachusetts Highway Department’s Mohawk Trail, Rt. 2 Improvements and Slope Stabilization
Address: 270 Main St. Lenox, MA 01240
Description: To ensure that Route 2 continues to serve the region by operating safely and efficiently, a multi-phase infrastructure improvement effort is being developed; this phase proposes to replace two large culverts and stabilize a failing highway embankment, all of which provide structural support for the highway.
Amount: $2,500,000
- Massachusetts Highway Department’s West Street Bike, Pedestrian, and Roadway Improvements
Address: 6 Walker St. Lenox, MA 01240
Description: West Street (Route 183) is an important piece of infrastructure to the local and regional economy that connects downtown Lenox with the town of Stockbridge and communities further south. This project will improve West Street's overall function by reconstructing the roadway and providing safer, improved pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
Amount: $2,500,000
- Montachusett Regional Transit Authority’s North Leominster Commuter Rail Station Parking Structure
Address: 1427 Water Street, Fitchburg, MA 01420
Description: The purpose of this project is to build a parking structure at a commuter rail station whose lot is stretched beyond its capacity.
Amount: $2,500,000
- National Council of La Raza’s Raza Development Fund
Address: 101 N. First Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85003
Description: For the National Council of La Raza to continue their community development programs.
Amount: $1,000,000
- North Quabbin Woods/New England Forestry Foundation’s North Quabbin Woods Project
Address: 1 East Main St. Orange, MA 01364
Description: North Quabbin Woods has promoted visitor information, area artisans, local lumber, and custom woodworking. North Quabbin Woods will expand on its success by building a strong local marketing presence, sophisticated website nfrastructure, and a solid cadre of artisans. By targeting markets with products and services, we will generate interest in the North Quabbin region thereby building business capacity, revenue, and job opportunities.
Amount: $70,000
- Pioneer Valley Transit Authority’s Vehicle Location System
Address: 2808 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01107
Description: Equip 150 buses and paratransit vans with location data and computer aided dispatch technology to track vehicles, enable passenger messages and displays with accurate arrival times, and provide dispatchers, managers, and passengers real-time data to better respond to service disruptions.
Amount: $2,500,000
- Town of North Adam’s Armory/Community Center Reconstruction Project
Address: 10 Main St. North Adams, MA 01247
Description: Funding will be used to perform construction work to make historic building ADA compliant to expand community usage. Funds have been secured for project design under Phase III of the project.
Amount: $500,000
- Town of Fitchburg’s Industrial Park in West Fitchburg Design, Engineering and Build-out
Address: 718 Main St. Fitchburg, MA 01420
Description: For design and engineer work needed for the development of an industrial park on 24 acres of city-owned land on Princeton Road, near the West Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Amount: $400,000
- UMass-Amherst’s Integrated Payment Systems for Transportation Security, Privacy, and Mobility
Address: 305 Whitmore Admin Bldg, Amherst, MA 01004
Description: This project will research security, privacy and mobility issues of integrated payment systems in both public transportation systems and infrastructure. This includes payments for trains, subways, buses, and commuter ferries as well as toll collection for roads, bridges, and tunnels, and payment for parking.
Amount: $1,000,000
- Wistariahurst Museum for Renovation and Build-out
Address: 238 Cabot St. Holyoke, MA 01040
Description: The improvements to the museum include critical structural work, the creation of an exhibit space and meeting space, and climate-controlled archives for historic documents and items. This will create public spaces for educational, historical and gardening programs and state-of-the art storage for the Holyoke, Skinner Family and Textile Collections.
Amount: $300,000
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