Published: October 29, 2009 11:58 pm      

County praises support of federal agency

CUMBERLAND — The new state director of a federal agency touted more than $3.5 million received by Allegany County communities to support infrastructure improvements during his visit here as well as education and public safety projects.

And Allegany County was on hand to say thanks.

“I would expect there’ll be few people whose lives haven’t been positively impacted” by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, specifically the Rural Development Division, said Paul Kahl, deputy director of the Allegany County Department of Public Works.

Kahl, Sen. George Edwards, Lonaconing Mayor Nicholas Hadley and others thanked Jack Tarburton and his colleagues on Thursday during the county commissioners’ weekly public meeting for the agency’s support. Over the past 15 years, Kahl said, Rural Development has distributed more than $29 million in loans and grants for more than two dozen projects across the county.

“It’s hard to express how important” that funding is, Kahl said.

Without it, many of those projects would never have happened — including the construction of Mountain Ridge High School, the county’s first new high school in 50 years.

“USDA Rural Development has been a phenomenal friend to Allegany County,” Commissioner Jim Stakem said in a news release.

Stakem said the projects aided by Rural Development financing “have improved the quality of life for our rural residents.”

Nearly all of this year’s $3.5 million received by the county and its municipalities is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funds are packaged with more than $2.6 million in state and local matches “to help provide a boost to our rural economy by creating or saving jobs,” Tarburton said.

Tarburton, who was selected last month to oversee the Maryland and Delaware districts, got a hands-on view of what some of the money has purchased. Prior to the start of the 11 a.m. public meeting, Tarburton and others, including representatives from the offices of Sens. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski and U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, gathered around a utilities division van.

In the back, utilities worker Brandi Dudley operated a portable, closed-circuit television camera affixed to what amounts to a remote-controlled vehicle. The unit, which cost approximately $75,000, allows workers to inspect water and sewer pipes 6 inches in diameter or larger. Mark Yoder, utilities division chief, said the county no longer has to contract the services out and saves time and money by doing the work itself. The equipment, with a television monitor, is transported in a self-contained unit and can be moved to different vehicles as needed, Yoder said.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.