Collegiate Times

In response to the passing of President Barack Obama's $838 bilion stimulus bill, Gov. Tim Kaine has created a Web site where Virginians can submit projects for funding consideration: www.stimulus.virginia.gov.

The Web site's aim is "to get suggestions from the public so when the money is allocated we can gain opinions and hit the ground running. The idea is to stimulate the economy and have projects ready to go," said Gordon Hickey, Kaine's press secretary.

Nearly 1,000 projects have been requested on the Web site, ranging from citizen requests to requests from towns.

The major request regarding Blacksburg came from Steve Jones, technology director for the Town of Blacksburg. He outlined a plan where the town would receive $420,000 to improve broadband Internet for public schools and other Blacksburg buildings. Jones did not return calls to the Collegiate Times.

Steven Brinlee, a Blacksburg resident, posted a request for funds that would go toward the completion of an interchange at the intersection of Prices Fork Road and Southgate Drive to provide a safer transition from Route 460 to downtown Blacksburg.

An institution such as Virginia Tech has a more direct path to Richmond.

"We have the power to appeal directly to those responsible," said Tech spokesman Larry Hincker. The Virginia Department of Planning and Budget is the liaison between Tech and legislation regarding budget allocation, and any official Tech requests for stimulus funding would go directly to them.

"We work with the budget people all the time so we will make our needs known," said Ralph Byers, executive director of government relations.According to Byers, Tech originally drew up a list of construction project funding requests but the construction portion of the stimulus bill was eliminated.

Regardless, Hincker said, "Any kind of citizen input, I think, is a powerful idea and I'm pleased that the governor asked for that kind of input."

A Tech faculty member utilized the Web site to submit her own Tech-related idea.

Angela Mathias, an adviser in Tech's biology department, requested funds for the creation of a degree in university studies. Mathias said she had "mentioned it to people in passing, and I heard someone yesterday who said 'you should post that somewhere,'" so she put it on the Web site.

The stimulus forum is a similar idea to another one of Kaine's projects, ideas.virginia.gov where Virginians can submit ideas for legislation. At the top of the most popular ideas on the Web site is a request to allow early voting for anyone in Virginia. The idea developed into a proposed bill, but was recently rejected by a House of Delegates subcommittee.

To submit a project on stimulus.virginia.gov, a person must provide an e-mail address, and upon receiving confirmation through the address, can fill out a form. The form requests contact information, the organization or town that the request is on behalf of, the type of request, and the estimated amount of funding necessary.

Hickey said that some of the potential stimulus money would be blocked for projects already approved by the state, mainly transportation projects regarding railroads, bridges, paving replacements and maintenance. Additionally, the stimulus bill blocks funding into various categories, including health care. However, he said, "We need suggestions, and we need to get these suggestions together and decide which ones are good."

Many of the submissions regard construction projects for towns or education funding. Some have submitted personal requests.

"My house could really do with some cleaning up," Justin Hart of Abingdon wrote. "I could probably sink about $30,000 into the project. If I get stimulus money from the federal government that's $30,000 I could put into the economy somewhere ... don't you think? I mean, as long as they're giving out free money, why not me and my business?"