Published: January 02, 2008 11:25 pm            

Ellsworth, Lugar, Bayh net $1.8M for Wabash Valley

Money budgeted for various projects including railroad relocation, communications equipment

TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute’s congressional leaders helped secure more than $1.8 million for local projects included as part of the 2008 federal budget.

The money will fund local projects in a variety of areas, based on information included in news releases from the offices of U.S. Rep. Brad Ellsworth and Sen. Richard Lugar. Different amounts were reserved in the federal budget, which was signed by President Bush last week.

Among the budgeted funding in the bill is nearly $1 million for the city’s emergency communications equipment. Former Mayor Kevin Burke, whose term ended earlier this week, said last week that local officials initially requested $750,000, but that it had gotten whittled down during the budgeting process. Two different appropriations in the federal budget helped bring about a new total that was more than Burke said was requested.

“We’ve made several trips to D.C. about this request over the last two years,” Burke said, so the president signed the budget, “and that means the City of Terre Haute and public safety get a nice shot in the arm.”

The funding will be used to improve the interoperability of communications equipment among local emergency responders, Burke said.

Lugar, Ellsworth and Sen. Evan Bayh are listed as sponsors of the initiative.

Since two different appropriations are listed in the federal budget for the effort, both amounts will fund the effort, said Emily Krueger, spokesman for Sen. Lugar’s office.

Also included in the 2008 budget is $450,000 for railroad relocation in the city.

Local officials knew that rail relocation “was a bigger project than we could just put into our group of projects that we take care of,” Burke said.

He also said that the funding would allow the city to hire consultants and plan the project without affecting the city budget.

“Well, it was our number-one priority at the federal level,” Burke said of railroad relocation funding. “We had worked two years on this as well.”

Mayor Duke Bennett could not be reached Wednesday evening for comment.

Local universities also received some federal help for some projects they are developing. Congress approved $500,000 for a new Center for New Business Development in the city.

The center is part of a partnership among the city, Indiana State University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, said Chris Pfaff, director for the Center for Business Support and Economic Innovation at ISU.

The funding will be broken into smaller grants that will be awarded to entrepreneurial companies in the Terre Haute area, he said.

“But we’re looking for the type of company that has some innovation,” Pfaff said, “either something they’re developing or a product they’re hoping to improve.”

Other funding includes $195,000 for Rose-Hulman’s K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Immersion Initiative, which is designed to improve students’ aptitude in those subjects.

The funding will be used for the school’s “Homework Hotline,” which helps elementary and high-school students in Indiana; an “electronic portal” which provides resources to middle-school teachers of science and mathematics; and the school’s “Catapult” program, a series of summer sessions lasting several weeks for incoming high-school seniors to learn about math and engineering, said Art Western, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Rose-Hulman.

Despite being in the greatest technological age, the percentage of students “who are opting to do science and engineering and mathematics is declining,” Western said, “and these funds are designed to try and reverse that trend. “

An additional $195,000 was budgeted for Union Hospital’s telemedicine program. The RuralHouseCalls.com initiative will allow patients to renew their medications online, request referrals, schedule appointments, update part of their personal information, and eventually even conduct e-visits with their doctors, said Hicham Rahmouni, information technology specialist for Union Hospital.

“ … What we currently have in place is just basics of the work flows of how it would work and so on,” Rahmouni said. “These funds will actually allow us to launch the program.”

Austin Arceo can be reached at (812) 231-4214 or austin.arceo@tribstar.com.

        

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