Smaller projects also seeing stimulus funding

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is paying an Oklahoma company $25,000 for picnic tables that will be used at Clinton State Park.

A meat processing plant in Wichita is supplying $4.8 million worth of hams to federal food programs across the country.

And the Robert Dole U.S. Courthouse in Kansas City, Kan., received a new, $2,600 energy-efficient freezer.

A federal database details what companies are getting paid for work under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

When Congress approved the $787 billion act in February, it was intended to create and save jobs, boost the renewable energy industry, weatherize homes and federal buildings, and rebuild the country’s transportation infrastructure, among other goals.

The stimulus program also allotted funds for agencies involved with land management, conservation and parks projects. Those works include the 39 metal picnic tables that will replace wooden ones around Clinton Lake.

The picnic tables are expected to arrive in the next 30 to 60 days and will save money for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in years to come, park manager David Rhoades said.

“It’s an opportunity for us to catch up and maybe do preventive maintenance and not spend so much money in the future going around replacing boards,” he said.

Last spring, Rhoades and other park staff throughout the region were asked to provide lists of “shovel-ready” work that also addressed long-standing needs, said John Holm, the corps’ Kansas City civil branch manager.

From there, the list was passed up the chain of command until it was approved at the federal level.

Not all stimulus money is going to new projects.

In May, the Agricultural Marketing Service spent $4.8 million on hams for federal nutrition programs, such as school lunches, said Billy Cox, a spokesman for the agency.

The money came after the agency’s Section 32 funding, which is used to purchase surplus commodities for its food programs, dried up.

The hams coming out of Wichita will be sent throughout the country to the programs that need it most, Cox said.

Some of the stimulus money should make federal buildings more energy efficient, such as two U.S. courthouses in Kansas.

In Wichita, the federal courthouse will get a new heating and cooling system. In Kansas City, Kan., the roof will be replaced on the Robert Dole U.S. Courthouse. Stimulus program money allowed for the General Services Administration to add solar panels on the new roof, which will help reduce the building’s energy bill, regional recovery executive Linda Phillips said.

As for the courthouse’s new freezer, shortly after the agency landed money to make improvements to the building, a cafeteria freezer died. Part of the Recovery Act money was directed to purchasing high-efficiency appliances.

It was an expense that raised more than one question.

“You wouldn’t believe how much trouble it was to get my money organized for that,” Phillips said. “You can spend $100,000, and no one blinks an eye. You try to spend a few thousand dollars and people say ‘what’s this for?'”