$3M federal grant to help center for river power

A $3 million federal economic stimulus grant will be used to establish a center for commercial development for turbines that can be placed in the Mississippi River and other powerful rivers to generate electricity.

Officials with Tulane University, which is guiding the River Sphere project, said the center could mark a big step forward in the science of hydrokinetics - using flowing water without a dam for generating electricity.

Calling the river one of Louisiana's best potential assets in alternative forms of power, Douglas Meffert, executive director of the project, said hydrokinetic power "is the sleeping giant of energy."

Using the river to generate power is well beyond the thinking stage.

Several companies have received preliminary permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to place turbines in the Mississippi and other rivers that would be turned by flowing water. Several different technologies are emerging to do that, such as totally underwater generation and turbines connected to barges on the surface that would do the generation.

Plans call for the turbines to be mounted on pylons below shipping lanes and attached to bridge abutments.

Forbes

Stossel: More Pointless Government Work

By: JOHN STOSSEL
The pressure is on Washington to spend that $862 billion in stimulus funds. Uncle Sam has doled out only $300 billion so far, so now they want to waste more of your money to expand a sleepy customs border station in Forest City, Maine; year-round population: Five.

The current station is sizable, with radiation detectors and a private residence for customs agents. Although only 5 cars cross the border on an average day, the Feds want to build additional residences, even though no one lives in the current one. They also want to add parking, but these ambitious plans call for more land than the government owns.

Jane Johnson is one of Forest City's 5 residents. Johnson says the government wants to take half of her property. The parking lot would be within 12 feet of her home.

Dale Wheaton owns Wheaton's Lodge, a fishing camp. Wheaton's land is also under scrutiny. Like Johnson, Wheaton refuses to allow government surveyors onto his property. But he is realistic about his chances against the government.

"I learned in primary school not to pick on people that are bigger than you because they usually beat the living crap out of you. And they’re gonna beat the crap out of me too."

The customs station is only open from 8 am to 4 pm and it’s closed Sundays. Johnson says that even if it did need expansion…

"That’s not going to stop any terrorists from coming into this country. They can come across the lake, they can come through the woods, they can come across the stream."

But that Recovery Act stimulus money must be spent. Homeland Security tells us that the expansion will address a “critical national security need.” But none of the five folks in Forest City believe that. Bob Parker told us:

"Somebody in Washington has decided we need to spend this stimulus money by Sept 30. Let’s go spend some of it in Forest City, Maine."

Border Control Program is caught in bureacratic hellhole while Mexican border towns turn into a war zone.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that she will immediately redeploy $50 million of Recovery Act (stimulus) funding originally allocated for the SBInet.

SBInet is a program initiated in 2006 for a new integrated system of personnel, infrastructure, technology, and rapid response to secure the northern and southern land borders. It is part of Secure Border Initiative (SBI), an overarching program of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to organize the four operating components of border security: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the United States Coast Guard.

In August 2008, DHS ordered Boeing to stop SBI work along the border between Arizona and Mexico because CBP had not received the necessary permissions from the Department of the Interior. Boeing told a subcontractor that the suspension of work could last until January 1, 2009.

On January 22, 2010, Napolitano ordered a reassessment of the $8 billion SBInet virtual border fence program in Arizona after another round of delays in the program.


SBInet is an electronic surveillance system composed of cameras, radars and other sensors strung on towers and coordinated with other sensor systems, communications and command and control networks. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently has been deploying a 23-mile segment of the system near Tucson, Ariz.

In announcing the transfer of funds, Napolitano said, “Not only do we have an obligation to secure our borders, we have a responsibility to do so in the most cost effective way possible. The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border known as SBInet has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines."

She added, "Additionally, we are freezing all SBInet funding beyond SBInet Block 1’s initial deployment to the Tucson and Ajo regions until the assessment I ordered in January is completed.”

Repaving under way

Highland Colony's potholes targeted

Improvements to Highland Colony Parkway have been a year in the making but are expected to be finished quickly.

Madison and Ridgeland started planning last April to use federal stimulus funds to make improvements to portions of the roadway. By late April or early May, officials in the two cities expect to see work crews putting a smooth riding surface down by repairing the roadway base and adding new top coats.

"We were ready for them to start, like, yesterday," said Denson Robinson, public works director for Madison. "It took a long time, longer than anticipated. With federal money, sometimes is takes longer."

The money for the Highland Colony rehabilitation work comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. The two cities, along with Madison County, Canton and Flora equally split the $2.2 million in federal money last April. Each local government got $451,699 but the Mississippi Department of Transportation is getting 15 percent from each for oversight of the projects.

"With ARRA money, there are various rules and regulations," Ridgeland public works director Mike McCollum said about the start-to-finish time. "There is a lot of paperwork, a lot of approvals to get."

Once the work starts, though, McCollum said drivers won't have to wait long for the job, stretching a little over half a mile, to be finished. "Ten days tops," he said.

Madison County Herald