 |
 |
| $8.4 million in local projects OK'd |
|
Author: Emelie Rutherford Publication: Metrowest Daily News |
|
June 27, 2006 - MetroWest will reap more than $8.4 million for an array of projects to revitalize downtowns, improve waterways and make it easier for people to travel the region, among other things, thanks to two recently approved state spending plans. Thirty-three specific projects in the Framingham, Milford, Waltham and Dedham areas will receive funding because they were included in a wide-reaching economic stimulus bill and a supplemental budget Gov. Mitt Romney signed into law over the weekend. The approved items include: $500,000 for the Framingham Downtown Renaissance economic revitalization group and the development of a capital plan for Framingham; $500,000 for a commercial redevelopment project in Ashland; $1.5 million for developing the Blackstone River Bikeway and $80,000 for a new crosswalk on the border of Waltham and Lexington. Several of the OK'd expenditures are for weather-related repairs, including $400,000 for emergency repairs to flood-damaged bridges, culverts and waterways in Milford and $100,000 for storm and flood-damage remediation in Holliston. And some of the approved projects are safety-related, including upgrades to the technological infrastructure of the Franklin Police Department that cost $75,000 and enhanced safety devices at the Wellesley Farms commuter rail station with a $500,000 price tag. Romney, though, irked many lawmakers by vetoing $225 million worth of spending in the economic stimulus bill and supplemental budget before signing them into law Saturday. The items Romney vetoed -- which lawmakers still could vote to restore by overriding his veto -- include 11 area projects worth $2.3 million. Those expenditures with uncertain fates include $250,000 for a tourism and business development project of the Hopkinton Athletic Association; $75,000 for repairs to the Danforth Building in Framingham; $800,000 for Holliston to buy and improve part of the Sherborn Rail Trail; $250,000 for studying and planning improvements to Hopedale Pond; and $150,000 for studying improvements to the Crescent Street parking garage in Waltham. The House is expected to start overriding Romney's vetoes in July. State Sen. Richard Moore, D-Uxbridge, said he expects lawmakers to restore many of the cut items. "I think (Romney's) focus is not on Massachusetts these days, and I don't think he's paying too much attention to local communities and their legislators when they say what they need," Moore said about the outgoing governor eyeing the White House. Romney said lawmakers called for spending too much money. He said the bills sent to him would draw $256 million from the state's $1.7 billion rainy day fund. "The spending in these bills would put Massachusetts on the same road to ruin we've been down before," Romney said in a statement. He also reduced judges' pay raises, vetoed $10 million for life sciences research and cut $8.3 million for substance abuse treatment in the bills. Large items Romney approved include $55 million for road and bridge improvements and $100 million for projects at the University of Massachusetts and state and community colleges. State Sen. Pamela Resor, D-Acton, said she will fight to restore environmental spending Romney slashed. The economic stimulus bill that passed the Legislature, for example, called for sending $30 million in state money to a fund used to redevelop polluted "brownfields." Romney reduced that amount to $15 million. "We are writing our letters" advocating for overrides, Resor said yesterday. |