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Stimulus makes local impact

Economy: Money pays for jobs, home fixes

BRAD SHANNON; The Olympian | • Published June 23, 2009

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U.S. Rep. Brian Baird dropped by a home-weatherization project on Olympia’s northeast side Monday, getting a first-hand look at how a sliver of the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package is beginning to work its way into the economy.

A crew from the Community Action Council of Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties was on the roof of Lorna Windham’s northeast Olympia home. Carl Raben, Sam Dougherty and others were finishing up repairs to stop a leak.

Other men, including private contractors hired by the council, had put new insulation into walls; insulation was being replaced under floors where rats had torn it away; and other plans were under way to block drafts and fix a water heater exhaust problem that put carbon monoxide into the home.

“The health improvements in addition to the energy improvements are really impressive,” said Baird, a Democrat from Vancouver, as Dougherty, a weatherization supervisor, led him around the one-story home and pointed out the changes being made in a two-day blitz of activity valued at $8,000 or more.

“This young lady is going to receive an improvement of her home that is going to save her money for a long time. It’s going to lower our greenhouse (gas) output. It’s putting people to work in real jobs. All these guys are working to some (degree) because of all this money,’’ Baird said in an interview, pleased by what he saw.

The homeowner said the home had been drafty and cold and that she qualified for help because she is disabled and has limited income. But without the aid, Windham said, “I wouldn’t get the work done.’’

John Walsh, chief executive with the Lacey-based council, said he has hired about a half-dozen workers for weatherization jobs, which have been moved up on the schedule using other funding sources while he waits for a bigger chunk of stimulus money to be released directly to his agency.

Statewide, stimulus dollars already are credited with creating a little more than 1,000 of the 75,000 jobs that the Obama administration expects to see in Washington from the roughly $7 billion of stimulus aid expected to come into the state, according to Jill Satran, who oversees state stimulus spending for Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Of that aid, $59 million is for weatherization in Washington, and only a fraction of that has been released to groups such as the action council to train and hire staff. They are waiting on the U.S. Department of Energy to approve Washington’s weatherization plan, which Baird predicted will happen in a couple of weeks.

The federal agency is reviewing state plans and could approve 80 percent of them by July 10, according to spokeswoman Chris Kielich. She was unable to say when Washington is coming up, but the state’s weatherization program director, Steve Paine, said he’s heard Idaho is under review and Washington is next.

Whenever money does come, Walsh said he has at least two dozen projects ready to go. And his crewmen, including J.R. Montarbo of Olympia, are ready to go.

Montarbo was hired two months ago in anticipation of the big surge of activity Walsh expected from the stimulus package. Montarbo said he worked as a cook but the slowing economy cut down his restaurant-work options.

With a wife and two kids, he said he needed more than the part-time jobs he was getting, and he’s happy so far to be learning a new trade and helping people out.

“The program is awesome – how much money you’re saving people,” Montarbo said.

The action council, which is a private nonprofit agency, hopes to receive $2.5 million for about 387 weatherization projects in its three-county area during the next 21/2 years. Another 813 projects could be funded in Pierce County through local organizations there.

Statewide close to 6,940 homes might be upgraded with insulation and other weatherization through March 2012 using the state’s allotment, and that is expected to generate close to 250 direct jobs per year across the state, according to the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development.

Baird said he thinks the $787 billion federal stimulus already is having an effect to help slow the speed of the economic decline, which he described as being in a “freefall’’ before President Obama took office.

The stimulus included tax breaks and increased jobless benefits that already took effect this spring, and agencies like the action council have hired staff, or kept people on, knowing the stimulus money is coming, Baird said.

Other pieces of the $7 billion earmarked for Washington goes to schools, Medicaid, welfare programs and dozens of other programs.