Grassley sends Siouxland funding requests to key panel
By Dave Dreeszen Journal business editor | Posted: Thursday, April 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Wednesday he has sent to a key Senate subcommittee Sioux City's funding requests for Interstate 29 and KD Station.
City leaders are asking for $8 million to build a new Interstate 29 interchange, opening thousands of mostly rural acres just south of the current city limits, and $26 million to relocate utilities along rebuilt segments of I-29. In addition, the city is seeking $2 million to help demolish the aging KD Station to rspur additional development in the former stockyards.
Earlier in the week, city officials were told by congressional staff members that securing the funding could be difficult in a tight budget year. Grassley said that while lawmakers face tough choices in next year's operating budget, one-time expenditures like the city's projects are financed with a different pot of funds.
"There's always going to be some money in the budget for capital improvements," Grassley told the local officials.
Also Wednesday, Grassley's office helped Patty Heagel, the city's economic development director, line up a meeting with the Environment Protection Agency office that funds interior asbestos removal for certain projects.
On Tuesday, an official in the Economic Development Administration suggested local officials explore the EPA program. Asbestos removal is believed to be as much as half of the estimated $3.6 million cost of demolition of KD Station, a 1920s-era meatpacking plant that was converted into a shopping and entertainment center in the 1970s. The center closed two years ago.
City leaders are asking for $8 million to build a new Interstate 29 interchange, opening thousands of mostly rural acres just south of the current city limits, and $26 million to relocate utilities along rebuilt segments of I-29. In addition, the city is seeking $2 million to help demolish the aging KD Station to rspur additional development in the former stockyards.
Earlier in the week, city officials were told by congressional staff members that securing the funding could be difficult in a tight budget year. Grassley said that while lawmakers face tough choices in next year's operating budget, one-time expenditures like the city's projects are financed with a different pot of funds.
"There's always going to be some money in the budget for capital improvements," Grassley told the local officials.
Also Wednesday, Grassley's office helped Patty Heagel, the city's economic development director, line up a meeting with the Environment Protection Agency office that funds interior asbestos removal for certain projects.
On Tuesday, an official in the Economic Development Administration suggested local officials explore the EPA program. Asbestos removal is believed to be as much as half of the estimated $3.6 million cost of demolition of KD Station, a 1920s-era meatpacking plant that was converted into a shopping and entertainment center in the 1970s. The center closed two years ago.
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