A move is on in the U.S. Senate to extend benefits under the big Paycheck Protection Program, which is scheduled to expire by late spring. Legislation introduced by Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, would provide additional aid to self-employed individuals, while not expanding the program’s existing budget. Out of a total of nearly $292 billion approved late last year by Congress for the program, under the auspices of the Small Business Administration, around $44 billion has been given to small businesses across the country. The program is designed to provide small businesses, including some construction firms, with forgivable loans if those loans are mostly spent on payroll. Since the launching of the program just weeks after the onset of the pandemic last spring, loans with a dollar value in excess of $762 billion have been approved. In introducing his legislation, Cardin noted that Congress “must pass this bill as quickly as possible so eligible small businesses have time to secure the aid they need before PPP closes on May 31.” Late last month President Biden approved a move to extend the deadline for PPP loans to May 31, from its earlier deadline date of March 31. At the time of that extension Cardin said the PPP program has to date supported “millions of small businesses through the pandemic,” adding that it was “clear the program must continue to be a lifeline for small businesses and nonprofits.” By Garry Boulard
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Work could begin later this year on a project that will see both repairs and upgrades to the Gila Regional Medical Center, located at 131 E. 32nd Street in Silver City. The project is receiving a $2.5 million assistance grant through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act Recovery program and will include renovations to the center’s roof as well as improvements to the facility’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system. Matching funds to the tune of $250,000 for the project are being provided by GRMC due to a capital outlay approved last year by the New Mexico State Legislature. A number of parties has been involved in securing the grant for the GRMC project, including the Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments. In a statement, Priscilla Lucero, executive director of the council, said the organization “prepared the application” for the grant, “and will also administer the award.” The design phase for the project has already been completed. Separately, the hospital is also receiving some $2 million in capital outlay funding approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham this spring for labor and delivery room improvements. The not-for-profit GRMC is the largest hospital in a 100-mile radius of mostly southwestern New Mexico, serving a combined population of around 63,000 people. By Garry Boulard A new trash transfer station may be built in Colorado Springs in an area dotted with apartment and office buildings. The site is roughly 7 miles to the southeast of downtown Colorado Springs. The project belongs to a company called Citywide LLC, and would go up at the intersection of the Hancock Expressway and Laramie Drive. The site has already been purchased by the company. An official with Citywide has said that the facility will provide a convenient way for residents to dispose of their trash, while also reducing illegal dumping in the area. Such facilities are designed to sort and separate trash before being sent to a recycling station or landfill. Typically, those facilities include a scale house, concrete pads, and several designated queuing lanes. The project has sparked the opposition of area residents who say, among other things, that the facility could lower property values. An online petition urging city officials to deny approval of the project has so far been signed by more than 1,000 people. Application papers for the project have not yet been filed with the City of Colorado Springs, nor has a construction schedule been announced. Colorado Springs currently has around a dozen operating public and privately-run trash transfer stations in various locations around the city. By Garry Boulard As part of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, President Biden is calling for up to $100 billion to be spent building new broadband systems, particularly in impoverished or rural areas that are underserved. According to a White House fact sheet, the President wants to ensure that “every American who wants to, can afford high-quality and reliable broadband internet.” The plan is also designed, says Administration officials, to reduce the cost of broadband, with a construction schedule expected to take around 8 years. Biden has pointed out than more than 30 million American currently have no access to broadband, while in some urban and suburban markets broadband access is too expensive for many. Otherwise known as the American Jobs Act, the President’s infrastructure proposal also calls for enhanced road and bridge construction, as well as new affordable housing, among many other features. The plan will additionally put an emphasis on spending for networks that are already affiliated with local governments or nonprofits, and in so doing will allow those entities to compete with private providers. Larry Irving, a former telecom official in the Clinton Administration, told USA Today that the President’s proposal is redefining the digital divide: “The simple act of recognizing that poverty is a bigger indicator of lack of access than geography is a huge statement.” But in an interview with the publication C/Net, Michael Powell, chief executive officer of National Cable & Telecommunications Association, said the President’s proposal wrongly presumes that “the government is better suited than private sector technologists to build and operate the internet.” Last week Republican Congressional members unveiled an infrastructure plan that will spend $65 billion on broadband infrastructure. In a statement, Wyoming Senator Jon Barrasso said the alternative broadband plan is less expensive because it will reduce regulatory barriers. According to a recent NBC News poll, some 59% of respondents said they supported Biden’s larger infrastructure plan, with only 21% expressing opposition. The American Jobs Act proposal is now being debated in Congress, with a final vote expected by mid-summer. By Garry Boulard A plan is on to build a handful of outlets in metropolitan El Paso for a popular chicken fast food chain. The Fayetteville, Arkansas-based Slim Chickens will not only be going up in El Paso, but also eventually at sites throughout New Mexico. The company currently has around 125 locations, with some five hundred new outlets in the development stage. In February, the company announced that it wanted to build 50 new stores by the end of 2021. The new El Paso outlets will belong to franchiser Dennis Ekstrom, chief executive officer of Diamondback LLC. Launched in 2003, Slim Chickens outlets are primarily located in the South. Slim Chickens stores usually measure around 800 to 900 square feet, although some are as large as 2,400 square feet and feature indoor dining space. The chain is known for its wings and tenders, as well as sandwiches and salads. Where exactly the new Slim Chickens outlets in El Paso will be built has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard Historic 1870-era jail upgrade one of many valencia county projects receiving capital outlay funding4/23/2021 A project that will see the upgrading of a historic jail in the central New Mexico town of Tome has now been approved for $100,000 in state funding. The Tome jail dates to the mid-1870s when the town served as the seat of Valencia County. It makes up the last structural remains of a larger building that was once the Valencia County Courthouse. Made of stone walls, the former 375 square foot jail with a 12-foot high ceiling made of hand-hewn vigas, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places The project is just one of more than $9.6 million in capital outlay projects for Valencia County approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. One of the largest appropriations is seeing $860,000 for sewer line improvements along the W. Aragon Road in Belen, with a slightly smaller $859,000 for the construction of a second clarifier for the Village of Bosque Farms’ wastewater treatment system. That money will also upgrade the plant’s ultraviolet system. The town of Peralta has been approved for up to $550,000 for drain and flood construction work, with $300,000 targeting the construction of a City Hall complex in the City of Rio Communities. Exactly $400,000 will go for improvements to the Village of Los Lunas Sports Complex. By Garry Boulard A move is on to ease zoning regulations in states, cities, and towns across the country in an effort to build more affordable housing. The Biden Administration is looking at the existence of what are known as “exclusionary zoning laws,” which are thought to restrict housing in some areas. Those laws, which include specific lot size requirements as well as prohibitions on multifamily housing, have not only made it more difficult for many projects to obtain approval, they can also lead to an increase in the cost of a given project. As part of the President’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, the Administration has proposed a $213 billion affordable housing effort calling, in part, for a competitive grant program designed to do away with exclusionary zoning. The grant program is expected to be initially funded at the $5 billion level. According to a fact sheet released by the White House, the program will award various jurisdictions that “take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing.” In an interview with USA Today, Marcia Fudge, Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, asserted that the program will be “critical to increasing housing options for low and moderate-income families.” Previous efforts to eliminate or lessen the presence of exclusionary zoning laws have been opposed by state and local government officials who say such policies are needed to regulate the density of a proposed project. In a recent published paper, Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow with the Century Foundation, said that one of the reasons for the continued existence of such zoning has been the “Not In My Backyard” movement which has “thwarted reform and kept exclusionary policies in place.” Speaking to Forbes magazine, Dudley Benoit, Alliant Capital vice-president, remarked: “It remains to be seen if locales that have fought for decades to prevent affordable housing can be incentivized to change their ways, but it is worth a try and could have a substantial impact if successful.” The President’s larger infrastructure bill, with the exclusionary zoning grants proposal, is now being debated in Congress. By Garry Boulard Plans have been announced for the construction of a new alternative energy farm near the town of Valle, roughly 50 miles to the northeast of Flagstaff. The Babbitt Ranch Energy Center will belong to the Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources. The company envisions a project that will include up to 53 wind turbines capable of generating 161 megawatts of renewable energy. Also included: a 60-megawatt energy storage system. As proposed, the project will be built on a vast rural site comprising nearly 43,000 acres, with roughly 1,000 of those acres being used for operational purposes. The land in question belongs partly to private parties and partly to the Arizona State Land Trust. NextEra is one of the largest investors in solar infrastructure projects in the nation, with up to $55 billion in facility construction planned during the next 3 years. With operative facilities in Florida, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin, the company last year enjoyed revenue in excess of $4.8 billion. Plans for the project will soon be submitted to the Coconino County Planning and Zoning Commission. In a public comment, Wardah Abbasi, project lead for the company, said NextEra is conducting “environmental studies as part of our permitting process, including cultural resources investigations, natural resources and wildlife studies, and visual analysis and simulations.” If all goes well, construction on the project could begin later this year, with an early 2023 completion date. By Garry Boulard Plans are underway for the construction of a new art gallery in the city of Grand Junction. The gallery will be named in honor of long-time and legendary artist Jac Kephart, who was widely regarded for his landscape and abstract paintings and died after a more than 50-year career in 2019. What will officially be called the Jac Kephart Gallery will be a part of the existing one-story Art Center of Western Colorado, located at 1803 N. 7th Street. The non-profit Center, which was inaugurated in the 1950s, opened its current one-story location in 1970. Over time, the Center has expanded from its original 7,800 square feet to nearly twice that size today. The facility is made up of four galleries as well as a gift shop and courtyard, and regularly hosts art classes, a concert series, and other events. A capital campaign is now underway with a goal of $600,000 to build the new gallery. Center officials are hoping that the fund-raising effort will also help pay for updates to the facility’s Gould Gallery, as well as the installation of a fire mitigation system. A construction schedule for the new Jac Kephart Gallery has not yet been announced. Kephart, whose works have been featured in art collections around the world, was not only known for his paintings and other works of art, but also his mentorship of would-be artists of all ages. By Garry Boulard More than $1 billion in new funding is being made available by the Department of Transportation for any number of infrastructure construction projects nationally. In announcing the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grants, DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the funding is designed to make “needed investments in our communities’ future.” Projects eligible for possible RAISE funding will be evaluated regarding their impact on such matters as environmental sustainability, innovation, and economic competitiveness, among other factors. According to DOT documents, grant applicants should emphasize projects that are designed to “better address climate change and advance long-term environmental sustainability.” Noting that minority, low-income, and tribal communities have often been subject to “disproportionate environmental harms and risks,” the DOT is also placing a particular emphasis on projects related to racial equity. The RAISE grants are a historic extension of two earlier DOT initiatives: the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery awards and the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development awards. Those two programs in the last twelve years have provided nearly $9 billion in funding for a wide variety of transportation infrastructure projects across the country. The application process for such DOT grants, however, has always been highly competitive, with less than 10% of applicants securing funding. The DOT’s submission deadline for states applying for RAISE funding is July 12. By Garry Boulard |
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