Trips And Travel Feb 2008

Trips and Travel

February 2008

Welcome to The Plaza Pages Newsletter San Angelo Texas

Trips and Travel

San Angelo to get $7 million in federal money

The San Angelo area is in line for nearly $7 million to fund local projects in a spending package President Bush signed into law Wednesday.

The Senate approved the legislation recently. The money was in the same bill the House approved last week, according to Concho Valley's U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Midland.

Here are the Concho Valley projects:

  • $5.8 million to upgrade the Mathis Fitness Center at Goodfellow Air Force Base. The project will provide a renovated administration area, and locker, shower, exercise and weight rooms. Workers will build a new all-purpose gym floor, group exercise and cardiovascular rooms, and fitness equipment space. Improvements also include expanding locker and shower rooms, resurfacing outside all-purpose courts and providing antiterrorism and force-protection measures to the exterior of new construction.

  • $819,000 for restoration of the O.C. Fisher Lake's ecosystem. The funding will support environmental restoration, land stewardship and water supply conservation. The dollars will help pay for removing invasive saltcedar, willow baccharis and prickly pear cactus, as well as construction for brush management. Project participants include the Army Corps of Engineers, Angelo State University and the Upper Colorado River Authority.

  • $245,000 to improve transportation for the elderly, disabled and others who depend on public transit. The money will help build a $3.2 million bus terminal in San Angelo, providing about half a million passengers with easy transfers among area bus lines, including the Concho Valley Transit System. The 7,200-square-foot terminal will allow riders to choose among intercity bus lines and taxi service.

After Senate passage, the omnibus spending bill went back to the House for agreement. The final stop was the president's desk for approval.

The legislation wraps 11 bills into a huge omnibus bill to designate funding for everything from military construction to education. A stopgap measure to keep the government running was to expire Monday.

Edited by Norman Bliss