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The money will upgrade the treacherous highway in Pinellas. Motorists can thank Rep. C.W. Bill Young.
By BILL ADAIR and EDIE GROSS
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 5, 2000
WASHINGTON -- The new federal highway bill includes a huge gift for Pinellas County: $50-million for improvements on U.S. 19.
The money was quietly inserted in the annual spending bill by Rep. C.W. Bill Young, the Largo Republican who is chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. It is $40-million more than Pinellas officials requested, providing a giant cash infusion for the county's most overburdened road.
Young, R-Largo, said $10-million will be used for safety improvements such as continuous sidewalks, more modern stoplights and revamped median openings. The remaining $40-million can be used by the state and county for major improvements such as new interchanges.
"This will get them a very large start on their 10-year-plan," he said.
Young said he decided to earmark money for U.S. 19 after several meetings with Pinellas County Commissioner Karen Seel, chairwoman of a task force on the highway, and U.S. Rep. Michael Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs.
Bilirakis said the money was vital because "people are dying."
"We're tired of seeing bumper stickers that say, "Pray for me. I drive U.S. 19,' " he said.
Young's ability to earmark that much money for the county's biggest transportation project is the latest reminder of his tremendous clout as chairman of the committee that oversees the annual spending bills. He also included these projects in the new transportation bill:
$7.6-million for St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport to buy land for a new instrument landing system and to rehabilitate and lengthen the runways. The bill directs the FAA to speed up approval of longer runways, which would allow larger planes to use the airport.
$75,000 for design and engineering of a new control tower at Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg.
$10-million for the construction of the bridge on the Clearwater Memorial Causeway, which links the downtown with Clearwater Beach.
$2-million for replacement buses and bus stops in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
The bill also includes $40-million for new systems to detect explosives at U.S. airports. About $20-million of it will go to L3, a Pinellas County company that is one of two contractors building the devices.
U.S. 19 is considered one of the most dangerous highways in the county. From 1996 through 1999, it had more than 6,900 accidents and 53 deaths, according to county traffic statistics.
In June, the task force headed by Seel issued a wish list of 60 suggestions to improve the highway. They were hoping for $10-million over two years. Receiving $50-million in one fell swoop was a welcome surprise.
"Excellent. This is pretty cool," said Pinellas County planning director Brian Smith. "We have been trying to do U.S. 19 things with existing dollars, which was really limiting us. Having this extra money come in kind of jump-starts everything."
"Yeehaw. That's great," said task force member Bill Carnes, general manager of Countryside Mall in Clearwater. "It's for the safety of the citizens of Pinellas County. I think it will be very well-spent."
Seel was out of the country Wednesday and could not be reached for comment.
Ten-million dollars of the federal gift is reserved for some of the task force's "safety initiatives" such as adding continuous sidewalks down the entire length of U.S. 19, installing technologically advanced signals that would respond to changing traffic conditions, and revamping 104 median openings so traffic cannot shoot across all six lanes.
The other $40-million must be spent to improve U.S. 19, but otherwise comes with no strings attached.
"That's my kind of money," Carnes said.
State Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Palm Harbor, said he hoped to use the federal money to attract even more from the state.
"That is a great help from the feds, a great help," Latvala said. "What we need to do is get the state to come up with more money to match it, and I think that's a real possibility."
Young emphasized that the federal dollars are in addition to money already set aside for ongoing U.S. 19 projects. For instance, the Florida Department of Transportation already is scheduled to spend $23-million this year building an overpass at U.S. 19 and Drew Street and another $45.4-million in 2002-03 building an overpass between Coachman and Sunset Point roads.
DOT also will spend $5.8-million in 2001-02 adding continuous right-turn lanes on the highway between Tarpon Avenue and Republic Drive in north Pinellas. Another $3-million has been set aside for sidewalks along U.S. 19 between Tarpon Avenue and the Pasco County line.
As part of Gov. Jeb Bush's Mobility 2000 plan, $100-million will be made available in 2009 to address problems on U.S. 19.
State and county traffic officials will have to organize their priorities for the highway much sooner than that to take advantage of the federal dollars.
"This is really, really good news," Smith said. "It puts a little pressure on us to get going because it's not money five years from now."
Young has done his "earmarks" without fanfare, inserting them late in the process so they won't draw attention from House and Senate colleagues. He said he doesn't discuss them publicly until he's sure the bills will pass.
"I don't want to jeopardize their success," he said.
The $50-million for U.S. 19 should be available immediately because it is in the transportation bill for the new budget year, which began Sunday. (The government has been operating under temporary spending bills until Congress completes the bills.)
Now that House and Senate conferees have agreed on the transportation bill, it will go back to the full House and Senate in the next few days. They cannot amend the bill and are expected to approve it by a significant margin. President Clinton is expected to sign it.
"This is a very popular bill," Young said, adding that he hopes to get additional U.S. 19 money next year.
The new money is limited to the Pinellas stretch of U.S. 19, where the safety problems are the worst, Young said. Improvements in Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties are covered by the regular highway plans.
Critics have often said Congress spends too much money on pork barrel projects that are added at the last minute to help individual lawmakers. But Young said the U.S. 19 project is critically needed because of the frequent fatalities there.
"The situation with U.S. 19 is so serious that there's no way anyone could suggest this is political pork," Young said. "On the contrary, if we didn't do this, we would be open to people saying, "Why didn't you do it sooner?' "