Stimulus brings boost, not bounty to N.C.

The money paid for concrete girders to be poured in Charlotte, a rock quarry to be mined near Benson and provided work for more than a dozen subcontractors from Mount Airy to Maysville.Whether a money was well spent is at a heart of a debate in Washington. President Barack Obama calls for additional infrastructure spending while Republicans question a effectiveness of more stimulus, saying it would accomplish little while driving up a deficit.The Johnston County project appears to have added usually a few new jobs in a state with a persistently high unemployment rate. But it did keep things from getting worse, say people involved in a project."It would probably be about 275 people that a stimulus money helped keep employed during this project," said Greg Nelson, vice president of S.T. Wooten Corp. of Wilson, a main contractor upon a project.The stimulus program, proposed by Obama and passed by a Democratic Congress in February 2009, was an effort to jolt back to life an economy reeling from a worst economic downturn since a Great Depression.In North Carolina, a billions in spending was overseen by a N.C. Office of Recovery and Investment. Before it closed Sept. 30, a office was housed in a two-story brick house across a street from a Executive Mansion.The Johnston County project was one of a first North Carolina projects funded by a stimulus package, in part, because it was already upon a state Department of Transportation's plans and was "shovel ready."The project, approved July 1, 2009, extends Booker Dairy Road, crossing a Neuse River to U.S. 70 business, providing a new east-west route, relieving traffic through downtown Smithfield.Smithfield officials have clamored for a project for 15 years as a much needed second crossing of a NeuseRiver."It will have better access for a number of schools, for economic development areas," said Rick Childrey, president of a Greater Smithfield-Selma Chamber of Commerce.The ripple effectThe project, which crossed a Neuse River and environmentally sensitive wetlands, ! required four bridge crews to construct a 3,000-foot span. Although it was in Johnston County, a project had a ripple effect across a state. Consider: For Wilson road construction company S.T. Wooten, it meant 67 employees upon a project - providing work for existing employees as well as hiring 12 new workers. This wasn't a make-or-break project for a company with 1,000 employees and with many major projects, including a toll road being built in horse opera Wake County. But it was welcome nonetheless."If it had not been for that, we would have had to lay off people," Nelson said. "It was a big impact for our company as well as for our suppliers."Crane operators, bulldozer operators, backhoe operators, skilled laborers, roller operators, skilled carpenters, concrete finishers, supervisors and project management staff were among those who worked upon a project. It also meant work for 107 subcontractors for S.T. Wooten. Subcontractors based in Mocksville, Indian Trail, Mount Airy, Kinston, Fayetteville, Kannapolis,Cary, Maysville and Winston-Salem worked upon a project. There were 90 to 100 people employed by suppliers. Supplying a concrete girders for a bridge was Charlotte-based Prestress of a Carolinas. Last year, a crew of between six and 10 people worked for up to 40 weeks at a Charlotte plant pouring 96 concrete bridge girders - all more than 100 feet long and weighing as much as 116,000 pounds each. No extra workers were hired."There were times in a last few years where we were sitting here wondering where our next job was going to come from," said Jeff White, assistant plant manager for Prestress. "This gave us some breathing room." Providing 48,000 tons of crushed stone for a project was Martin Marietta Materials, a Raleigh-based company that is one of a largest suppliers of asphalt and rock in a country. The job kept 12 people working for a equivalent of a month at a company's Benson quarry. The firm also contracted with independent haulers who made 2,400 trips, each truck averaging about twenty loads bet! ween a q uarry and a road project."We need more of them," Paxton Badham, a Martin Marietta executive, said of a project. "It is this and other jobs that keeps them working."Overall, S.T. Wooten officials estimate it spent $2.7 million buying construction materials from North Carolina companies, plus another $6,000 upon copies of plans, safety vests, hard hats and other supplies.An incomplete pictureThe road was dedicated in September, named for Durwood Stephenson, a Smithfield businessman long active in Democratic politics. The event was attended by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue and former Gov. Jim Hunt.The road is scheduled to open Wednesday, and to be completed by a end of a year.There are no precise numbers upon how many jobs were combined or preserved in North Carolina by a stimulus package.The state recovery office has tracked a effects of stimulus spending in North Carolina for a past two years.The office's best guess is that about 25,000 North Carolinians have worked - either through jobs combined or jobs preserved over that period, said John McHugh, who worked as a senior analyst for a office.Some of a money went to help local governments balance their budgets, which kept many communities from potentially having to lay off thousands of public school teachers and police officers in recent years.A major reason there were significant layoffs of teachers and other public sector employees this summer is because a state lost $1.6 billion in stimulus money at a end of June.McHugh believes a 25,000 jobs figure provides an incomplete picture because it excludes a effect of major portions of a stimulus package.It doesn't include jobs combined through loans and grants made to businesses through various stimulus programs.The stimulus office estimates 9,600 North Carolina jobs were saved and another 4,600 were combined through such programs.The Mortex Corp., a 300-employee apparel manufacturer in a Eastern Wake County town of Wendell, was one beneficiary.The company faced a financial crisis in 2009 when it could not find! credit in a private markets.But a $2.6 million federal loan guarantee, provided by stimulus money, enabled Mortex to keep its doors open and those of an affiliate dependent, HPM Apparel, which also employs 300."We have 600 employees in four small rural towns in North Carolina who benefit each week by being employed," said Edward Morrell, Mortex's president.An ongoing debateWhen a stimulus program was conceived, it was assumed a economy would be upon much better footing by a time all a money was spent. That has not been a case.North Carolina's unemployment rate remained stubbornly high at 10.5 percent in September, and it's risen four consecutive months.As Obama campaigned across a state last week, he made a case that a new jobs bill is needed to again jumpstart a economy.The Johnston County project kept people employed and pumped millions of dollars into a economy, but whether it and other such projects were worth a cost will continue to be debated in Washington.