IPSWICH — Town officials were disappointed to learn this week that the repaving of South Main and Central streets won't be paid for with federal stimulus funds.
The $1.8 million project was submitted for approval under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but when the second round of projects was announced, Ipswich wasn't on the list.
Neither was any other town on the North Shore. Among the projects that didn't win approval was the $2 million repaving of Route 1A in Swampscott from the Salem line to Vinnin Square. Wenham had also asked for $575,000 to replace the Essex Street culvert damaged during the 2006 Mother's Day storm.
The Water Department completed replacement of the water main under South Main and Central streets this summer. Now the town has no money to rebuild the road surface.
Public Works Director Bob Gravino said it looked like the town had a good chance of winning approval for the stimulus money until the last minute. The project was on the state Transportation Improvement Projects list, was "shovel-ready" and was on a state numbered road.
"I spent most of (Tuesday) trying to find out what happened," Gravino said. "But there was nothing more we could have done."
He said many of the recommended projects have stronger economic and development impacts than this one. He also said North Shore public works directors get together regularly, and they believed all along they were all long shots to win any of the funding.
Just because the region didn't get any highway funds doesn't mean it was passed over by the various other stimulus programs.
Many local schools got welcome aid, though some got nothing, and a stalled affordable-housing project in Beverly was awarded $4.79 million. Beverly Airport got $1.5 million to repave taxiways.
More recently, Salem received $356,000 to cover the full cost of a new fire boat. And Danvers will get more than $8 million to replace electric meters and fund other electric projects.
Marblehead is getting $1.4 million for new electric meters and other electric projects.
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