U.S. Senator Patty Murray announced Feb. 25 that she has included
more than $2 million for the City of Auburn in the final version of a
key yearly spending bill, including $1.9 million for the city’s A-B
Street Corridor Connector projects.
The A-B Street project will connect a major north-south
route with a vital 1.47 mile missing link for the 3.5 mile traffic
corridor. City officials say that the A-B Corridor Connector is critical
to generating jobs and promoting the long-term economic health of the
City. The corridor will also provide a northerly emergency access point
for traffic entering and leaving the city center.
This project is part of a comprehensive strategy to
breathe new life into the downtown.
“This funding will help support local jobs and Auburn’s
long-term goal of downtown revitalization,” Sen. Murray said in a press
release. “In the face of a deepening recession, keeping vital local
projects like this moving forward is critically important. I’m proud to
work to return Auburn residents’ taxpayer dollars to projects in their
own backyard.”
“The A/B Corridor is one of the few opportunities
identified in the last decade for an additional north-south corridor in
the Valley Cities area for both freight and commuters,” said Mayor Pete
Lewis. “Senator Murray’s longstanding support for this project has
enabled the City to successfully address the economic and traffic needs
of its citizens.”
The corridor will provide a northerly emergency access
point for traffic entering and leaving the city center. Improved
emergency access is critical because downtown Auburn is adjacent to the
mainline BNSF railroad. Trains along this line block other northwesterly
routes out of the city center on a frequent and unpredictable basis.
Without the corridor, emergency access to the Auburn Regional Medical
Center, a level 3 trauma center, is severely compromised.
The 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill will include $285,000
as well to support Green River Community College’s Computer Reporting
Technologies program, which trains students to provide quality
captioning for nearly 30 million deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans.
This funding would help to create more student scholarships, provide for
equipment/technology upgrades and strengthen the existing Distance
Learning program.
It will provide for continued professional retraining
workshops for working court reporters interested in captioning as an
alternative or second career and additional community outreach projects
serving the local deaf and hard-of-hearing communities..
The bill funds projects for the rest of the 2009 Fiscal
Year which runs until Sept. 30. The Omnibus bill is separate from the
Economic Recovery bill Passed by Congress and enacted by President
Barack Obama last week. The House of Representatives was expected to
vote Thurday on the bill with the Senate following suit this week. It
will then be sent to the president for his approval.
– The Auburn Reporter
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