FROM THE STAR LEDGER

Posted by lmelisur April 12, 2009 08:15AM

When President Obama in February touted a $787 billion stimulus package emphasizing "shovel-ready" projects that would immediately put people to work, officials coordinating the Green Brook Flood Control Project thought they had the perfect example: They had a shovel-ready proposal that was the biggest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project east of the Mississippi River.

They requested $13 million to complete the critical final stage that would keep Bound Brook free from the flooding that has chased residents to their rooftops in Somerset County's oldest community and caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage in the Green Brook basin.

Two months later, the shovels are ready, but the flood wall and levee project is on hold while officials await word on whether their federal stimulus money request was approved.

In a polite but direct letter in which he addressed Obama as "My Dear Mr. President," Congressman Leonard Lance on Monday wrote to express his concern regarding the delay and requested that the president's administration release the funding.

"Mr. President, I personally toured the Green Brook site in February with Army Corps officials and assure you that this project is ready to break ground," he wrote. "The project is vital to protecting the residents of Bound Brook, New Jersey. The only component missing is Executive Branch approval."

The funding request for the flood control project remains under administration review.

Lance, a Republican whose district includes Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties, did not vote for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act the president signed into law in February. But he said he supported an alternative plan that shared the president's goal of getting the American economy moving again through shovel-ready infrastructure projects.

Obama's budget to Congress included $10 million for the Green Brook Flood Control Project, but $23 million is necessary to complete the final link of Bound Brook's $113 million flood control project.

"We've been told by the corps that this project has all the elements of being shovel-ready, so we're kind of worried by the fact that there's been a delay, and we hope that this funding will be delivered as soon as possible," Bound Brook Mayor Carey A. Pilato said.

He said once funding is approved, the project can go out to bid and work can begin within months.

"It's ready to go," Pilato said. "We're the largest project east of the Mississippi. To me, it's a no-brainer. This should be funded."

The Green Brook Flood Control Project includes parts of Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties. Bound Brook and western Middlesex borough and other areas of the Raritan River-Green Brook sub-basin were priorities because of their susceptibility to flooding.

In 1973, a flood killed six people in the area, 1,000 people were evacuated and President Richard Nixon declared it a disaster area. During Tropical Storm Floyd in September 1999, Bound Brook, prone to flooding when the Raritan River crests at 29 feet, saw the river crest at a record 42.1 feet.

More recently, an April 2007 nor'easter pounded Bound Brook, flooding more than 500 homes and resulting in $32.4 million in recovery costs. Houses caught fire and the flooding blocked fire trucks from reaching the burning homes.

Lance said with New Jersey's unemployment rate above 8 percent, stimulus funding for the Green Brook project could put people back to work.

"It is a classic, non-partisan, shovel-ready project," he said.

Lance said other communities have already been awarded stimulus money.

"Flooding has caused tens of millions of dollars of devastation in that section of New Jersey," he said. "When this is finished, there will not be the opportunity to have that devastation again."

Mike Frassinelli may be reached at mfrassinelli@starledger.com.