The Urbana City Council is being pressed to vote on the Olympian Drive project at their meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at Urbana City Hall (400 S. Vine). From an email sent by Common Ground Food Co-op:
There are some important new developments you should know about with regard to this project.
First, Congressman Tim Johnson has said that no federal funds are forthcoming for Olympian Drive (from an email dated 4-12-10 from Congressman Johnson to Laura Huth: “the House Republican Caucus has unanimously agreed to a one-year moratorium on earmark requests. Therefore, I am unable to request any appropriations funding for the Olympian Road project, or any other pending projects throughout the 15th Congressional District in 2010. Any financial projections that anticipated an earmark from my office should be revised based on this decision. Best Regards, Timothy V. Johnson Member of Congress”).
However, the information provided to city council members on Friday regarding the financing of this massive public works project does not show financial projections for this project without these federal funds. This $8 million project deficit would need to be made up by Urbana taxpayers, yet Urbana Council members have not been provided any detail as yet how this might be done, or if it can even be done given the city’s current state of finances, the economy, etc.
Despite this, Mayor Prussing is pushing Urbana council members to vote on the project tonight despite a major lack of federal support, opposition at the County level, and incomplete city financial projections.