Webb, Warner eye stimulus grant for new jobs

By Linda McNatt

Virginia's U.S. senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner, have added a please and thank you to a grant application recently submitted by the city of Suffolk.

The letter was sent last week to the U.S. secretary of transportation, focusing on the $54 million application to improve a stretch of U.S. 58 between Suffolk and Franklin. Plans call for widening a four-lane road to six lanes for about three miles.

Suffolk is preparing for a new industrial park planned for the area that would potentially support the port of Hampton Roads. CenterPoint Properties is expected to build out the facility over the next 10 years.

Warner and Webb are thinking about the 1,100 workers expecting to soon be laid off from the International Paper mill in Franklin, said Jessica Smith, spokeswoman for Webb's office. They say the road work could help provide jobs for the mill workers, both now and in the future.

The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or Tiger, grant program was created by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Already, about $100 million in grants have been applied for in Virginia alone.

"This project has the potential to generate thousands of new jobs for the people of Suffolk, Franklin, Southampton and Isle of Wight, providing much-needed economic opportunities to those negatively impacted by th e closure of the International Paper plant," the letter to the transportation secretary said. "It is also a project of national significance because of the international trade benefits it offers."

The grants are part of a new program created by the stimulus law. The program is expected to provide up to $1.5 billion through Sept. 30, 2011, according to a news release put out by the senators' offices.

http://hamptonroads.com/2009/11/webb-warner-eye-stimulus-grant-muchneeded-jobs