The massive federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus program, created or saved 633 jobs in Clallam County and 114.5 jobs in Jefferson County in 2009, according to the state Office of Financial Management, which tracks the funding for the federal government.
Beneficiaries include the Clallam Bay Corrections Center, the Port Angeles Police Department, Peninsula College, North Olympic Peninsula tribes, public schools and roads projects, including Upper Sims Way in Port Townsend.
But a precise assessment of the jobs generated by the act, which was signed by President Barack Obama signed the act on Feb. 17, 2009, is hard to come by.
Office of Financial Management spokesman Glenn Kuper conceded the totals “give a general sense of job numbers.”
He said that from mid-February through August, the job totals include jobs “indirectly” created or saved by stimulus funds.
These recipients of Recovery Act money said they would have had to fire employees because they needed money to buy equipment.
Stimulus funding filled the gap, Kuper said.
“That would be indirectly saving the job,” he said.
But from September through December, the totals include “only jobs directly paid for with recovery money,” Kuper said,
“It’s much more transparent and easier to track,” he said.
Most funding will be distributed over two years ending this December, Kuper said.
According to the White House, more than $6.3 billion in recovery funds has been made available in Washington state and more than $3.4 billion has been spent. The White House Council of Economic Advisors estimates the act is responsible for creating or saving 45,000 jobs in the state last year.
Meanwhile, unemployment rates have risen on the North Olympic Peninsula, with Clallam County’s January unemployment rate of 11.4 percent the highest reported since February 1994, when it crested at 12.3 percent, and Jefferson County’s January rate at 10.6 percent.
Money in Peninsula
Grants and contracts to Clallam County has resulted in $15.1 million spent in stimulus funds through January out of $46.1 million awarded over two years, according to the tally of stimulus recipients and amounts they received listed at Access Washington, www.recovery.wa.gov.
Also, Clallam County had received more than $29.5 million in recovery grants that flowed through state agencies, according to the state Web site.
Jefferson County received $2.6 million through January, and is due $6.2 million more for a total of $8.8 million over two years.
Also, as of February, Jefferson County had received more than $7.5 million in recovery grants through state agencies, the web site said.
Major outlays include $15.7 million in salaries over the two-year period for Clallam Bay Corrections Center employees, more than $5 million in funding for Lower Elwha Klallam, Quileute and Makah tribes and $1.96 million to improve Upper Sims Way in Port Townsend.
A comprehensive list of projects funded in January and February will be part of quarterly reports filed after March 31, Kuper said.
This month, it was announced that the Interior Department had received $55 million to speed removal of two dams from the Elwha River, in a project expected to begin in 2011.
Jobs saved
For 2009, the corrections center was by far the largest single beneficiary of stimulus money.
That funding falls under the jobs-saved category — stimulus funds are paying the existing salaries of 261 corrections staff that otherwise might have been compromised, agency spokesman Chad Lewis said.
“It wouldn’t mean we wouldn’t have corrections officers, but it might mean job cuts somewhere else or other cuts elsewhere,” he said.
Kuper said the state relies on recipients to report how many jobs were saved by stimulus funds.
Jobs created
Justin LeRoux, 26, snugly fits into the jobs-created category.
The 26-year-old Port Angeles Police Department officer owes his new job to stimulus funds routed through the Community Oriented Police Services (COPS) program. He’s filled one of two vacancies.
“I would say I’m very thankful,” said LeRoux, in his first month of field training in a job he’s wanted since high school.
Recovery Act funding pays $166,737 in salaries and benefits for LeRoux and former Sequim police Detective Kori Malone for three years, with the caveat that the city pay a fourth year, Police Chief Terry Gallagher said.
The department also received $49,000 for a downtown resource officer and about $12,000 for its school resource program.
“I was tickled pink to receive that money,” Gallagher said, adding he doesn’t expect to be laying anyone off after four years, when the grant commitment ends.
“Because I know we will have retirements down the road, we will be able to sit down and make decision on whether to fill holes in our staff created through attrition as opposed to laying people off,” he said.
“The grants just give us flexibility.”
Not everyone’s a fan, though.
Funds to entrepreneurs
While funds went directly to governments and government agencies that in turn awarded contracts to private firms or filled existing public sector vacancies, more money should have gone directly to entrepreneurs, Dick Pilling, Clallam County Republican chairman, said Thursday.
“With all due respect, a government employee does not add to the economy,” he said. “The money only comes from taxes.”
“Any time you create a government job is certainly good, but the rest of the people pay for it,” Pilling said.
“The job does not pay for itself. I feel protected by a police officer, but all he does is take his salary and meet his normal needs. He does not hire anybody.”
Some funds have gone to Peninsula businesses such as Peninsula Plywood in Port Angeles, which received a $1.89 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
After sitting cold for more than two years, production began at the plant last week, with 124 employees.
“We would have made this thing go, but without that guarantee, it would have cost us more money,” said Grant Munro, a former City Council members and one of three key investors in the effort.
Tribal funds
Stimulus funds are lifeline for Peninsula tribes such as the Lower Elwha Klallam and the Quileute, tribal officials said.
The federal government has made a special effort to route money to reservations, where unemployment is higher and health problems greater than elsewhere, Kuper said.
The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has been awarded $4.7 million, about 10 percent of the total funding for Clallam County, according to www.recovery.wa.gov.
Almost half of that is for removal of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, while the remainder includes funding for 20 housing units, health services for children and families and the widening of Stratton Road, the only road in and out of the reservation west of Port Angeles, tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles said.
Without the funding for Stratton Road, “we would still be concerned with the emergency exit out of there for the community and our young ones and elders, as well as non-Natives who live on the reservation,” Charles said.
“We would have a slower process than we already have. You can go back into the ’90s and these are some of the things we were talking about.”
Funding also includes $879,000 for housing for the 700-member Quileute tribe on the West End.
Up to 13 new houses will be built with the funds, tribal housing director Anna Parris said, adding that some of 35 tribal members on the waiting list have been there for four years.
“I’m hoping that in June, we are going to have houses going up,” Parris said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.