Taxpayer dollars must be used wisely and responsibly to create jobs and invest in the future. The following projects have been submitted to the House Committee on Appropriations to boost the economy in central Ohio. They have been requested through funds sets aside each year for local projects in the budget process. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s priorities for selected federally funded projects include economic development, health care, education and new energy technologies that make our nation stronger, healthier and safer.

The 111th Congress has made transparency paramount to the process. Each projected lists the grantee, the grantee’s contact information and why the project is a good use of our tax dollars.

For further information about these requests, please use the contact link.

Project: 24-Bed Hospice Inpatient Facility, Kobacker House Hospice
Requestor: OhioHealth
180 East Broad Street
Columbus
OH 43215
Amount: $1,000,000
Description: This project would help fund the only inpatient hospice facility in the Central Ohio area. OhioHealth is proposing to build a new 24-bed inpatient hospice facility to replace the current facility, which only has 9 beds and a substantial waiting list for this critical and caring service.

Project: 5th Ave Dam Removal
Requestor: Army Corps of Engineers Huntington District
502 Eighth Street
Huntington, WV 25701
Amount Requested: $1,310,000
Description: The DPR has evaluated restoration alternatives for improving the aquatic ecosystem including removing or modifying the 5th Avenue low head dam and including restoration work for the stream such as the addition of natural stream features such as riffle and pool sequences. The report addressed the change in the associated floodplain to determine associated impacts with the change in the channel hydraulics.

Project:  Advanced Fieldable Terahertz Detectors
Requestor:  SRICO Inc.
2724 Sawbury Boulevard
Columbus, OH  43235
Amount:  $1,000,000
Description:  This project will significantly advance Terahertz detector technologies to overcome existing technical hurdles and enable much smaller, fieldable sensors for Army Chemical / Biological warfare agent sensing. Deliverable detectors will be hand-held level devices.

Project:  Alginate Oligomers to Treat Infectious Microbial Biofilms
Requestor:  The Ohio State University Comprehensive Wound Center
410 W. 10th Avenue
Columbus, OH  43210
Amount:  $3,000,000
Description:  To test in human clinical trials an alginate oligomer to be used after an injury as part of or in combination with standard care in treating burns and wounds to treat microbial infections and to prevent such infections from becoming chronic.  These types of infections are often suffered by those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as by diabetic veterans and could result in lower health care costs and prevent amputations.

Project:  Alternative Energy Fuel Cell Power Generation
Requestor:  Battelle Memorial Institute
505 King Avenue
Columbus, OH  43201
Amount:  $3,500,000
Description:  The potential use of fuel cell technology to provide primary or secondary power to the military presents many inherent benefits, including improved fuel efficiency, noise reduction, safe emissions, water production, and flexible deployment configurations. Up to this point, our military’s use of fuel cell technology has been limited by the inability to effectively use logistic fuels.  The high sulfur content and high molecular weight of logistic fuels are the most significant impediments to their use in fuel cell power generators.  This proposed project addresses the logistics fuel issue by integrating a new sulfur removal technology with Battelle’s internally funded fuel cell Advanced Power Generator (APG). Since it provides for development and field testing of a military version of the APG, the project is the final, critical step in demonstrating the manufacturing readiness of fuel cell-based power systems for a variety of military applications – from stand-alone generators to vehicle auxiliary power units to equipment-dedicated power systems (e.g., remote surveillance equipment).

Project: Alton Commons Blvd Improvements, Hilliard, OH
Requestor: Ohio Department of Transportation
1980 West Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43223
Amount: $8,120,000
Description: This project consists of constructing a new 5-lane divided roadway through the Jerman property, which will provide an extension of Cosgray Road south of its existing terminus at Scioto Darby Road to realign with Alton Darby Road, north of Heritage Club Drive. The project will include a 4- lane roadway with center median, bike lanes or wide outside lanes for bicycles, multi-use paths along both sides of the street, street lighting, and appropriate traffic controls. Modern roundabouts will be evaluated to determine feasibility. This roadway extension is vitally important to the City's north/south arterial infrastructure.  The following are private development data associated with this Project: over 2,000 new jobs; $5,200,000 in general site work including drives, utilities and storm sewers; $30,000,000 in approximately 300,00 sf of retial @ $100/sf site and building; $22,400,000 in approximately 195,000 sf of office @ $115/sf site and building; $1,000,000 in a stream restoration project for the Clover Groff ditch.

Project: Biorepository for Children's and Women's Cancers: Platform to Personalized Medicine
Requestor: Nationwide Children's Hospital, Inc
255 E. Main Street
Columbus, OH 43205
Amount Requested: $800,000
Description: The Biorepository for Children's and Women's Cancers: Platform to Personalized Medicine project will support efforts of physicians and researchers nationwide for improving care and finding faster cures by digitizing its samples and associated clinical information as well as continuing its cutting-edge technological innovation. The project will provide platform technologies for the fight against all cancers and a broad range of diseases, developing major components of (1) personalized medicine customizing treatment on the basis of genes and (2) the electronic research record.  This initiative will be a model for institutions throughout the cancer research and biorepository domain.

Project: Cancer Survivorship Navigator Clinic and Model
Requestor: The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center: James Cancer Hospital and Richard Solove Institute
300 West 10th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Amount: $4,994,634
Description: Develops and implements a cancer survivorship navigator clinic and model to improve communication with survivors and families for follow-through on post-treatment plans and compliance with risk reduction and early detection recommendations. Establishes systems to effectively communicate with, and provide education on cancer survivor needs, to primary care physicians providing ongoing care for cancer patients.

Project: City of Columbus Property and Crime Lab
Requestor: City of Columbus
90 West Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Amount: $470,000
Description: The construction of a combined Police Property and Crime Lab is critical to public safety in Central Ohio. This project will provide a property control facility of 80,000 square feet to provide for the expanding needs of our property and evidence storage needs.

Project: Columbus Regional Airport Authority (CRAA) Apron and Taxiway Expansion Project
Recipient: Columbus Regional Airport Authority (CRAA)
4600 International Gateway
Columbus, OH 43219
Amount: $500,000
Description: The NetJets Apron Expansion will add approximately 2.77 acres of paved apron adjacent to the west side of the existing NetJets apron and a taxiway to connect the new NetJets apron to Taxiway J. The apron will be able to support deicing operations and storm water capacity will be increased as a result of the new construction. This is approximately a $4.7 million project.

Project: Columbus Regional Internship Initiative
Requestor: Columbus Chamber of Commerce
150 South Front St, Second Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Amount: $475,000
Description: The Columbus Region Internship Initiative is a three-year program to increase the number of internships that are provided to students attending post-secondary education and to increase particularly the number of small- and mid-sized employers in the Columbus Region who provide internships.

Project: Computer Crimes Evidence Equipment and Training
Requestor: Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Education
1560 State Route 56 SW
London, OH 43140
Amount: $460,000
Description: The Ohio Attorney General requests funding to purchase robotics, consulting and training to enhance activities of its computer crimes unit. The number of cases processed by this unit continues to increase – specifically internet crimes against children involving child pornography cases.

Project: Doctors Hospital Medical Education Facility and Emergency Department
Requestor: Ohio Health
180 East Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Amount: $500,000
Description: This project creates a Medical Education Facility and expands the Emergency Department.

Project: Elevated Water Storage Tank Replacement and Treatment
Requestor: Village of South Solon
P.O. Box 360
South Solon, OH 43135
Amount: $500,000
Description: The funds would be used to replace an 80,000 gallon water storage tank erected in 1953 and perform water plant improvements as required by the Ohio EPA. This would be funded out of the Rural Development Agency. The existing elevated water storage tank is 55 years old in terrible condition. The interior and exterior lead paint is scaling and the steel rusting. The treatment plant is also in poor condition as the filter needs replaced and the plant building repaired. The Village has unusually high utility bills as the OEPA mandated that sewers and a treatment plant be installed in 2004 at great cost to the Village, of which a large percentage are of fixed income.

Project: Enhancement of Ohio AFIS System
Requestor: Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation
1560 State Route 56 SW
London, OH 43140
Amount: $3,000,000
Description: To enhance the Ohio AFIS to include palmprints and mugshots, providing more information to Ohio law enforcement and prosecutors to help them more quickly identify suspects and search latent crime scene prints against the Ohio AFIS.

Project: Grandview Heights, Franklin County, OH
Requestor: Corps of Engineers Huntington District
502 Eighth Street
Huntington, WV 25701
Amount: $100,000
Description: Approximately 550 structures in the study area are impacted by the 100-year flood with an estimated damage risk in excess of $100M. The sponsor, the City of Grandview Heights, is willing to participate in the feasibility phase. Letters of Intent from the City of Grandview Heights were received on June 14, 1999 and May 28, 2004. The Grandview Heights area lies along the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers and is located across the Scioto River from the West Columbus Local Protection Project. The City of Columbus and the small community of Marble Cliff surround the study area. The Recon Report will evaluate water resource related problems, primarily flooding in the Grandview Heights area. Potential flood damage reduction measures to be examined include levee/floodwall alignments and non-structural alternatives such as flood proofing and floodplain evacuation. It is important to initiate the study because of the potential for flood damage and loss of life.

Project:  Harbor Shield – Homeland Defense Port Security Initiative
Requestor:  Battelle Memorial Institute
505 King Avenue
Columbus, OH  43201
Amount:  $4,000,000
Description:  Development of an integrated system of systems that provide a means to conduct rapid inspection of ship's under-hull while minimizing the impact to commerce.  For the purposes of the demonstration system, the primary focus will be on developing a system that integrates under-hull imaging by Synthetic Aperture Sonar and subsurface Electro-optical sensors together.

Project:  Hybrid Materials Integration
Requestor:  Edison Welding Institute
1250 Arthur E. Adams Drive
Columbus, OH  43221
Amount:  $2,000,000
Description:  Development of new innovative manufacturing approaches to produce high performance components for hypersonic aircraft.  Edison Welding Institute and the Air Force Research Lab have teamed to develop new joining technologies to build lighter cost-effective aircraft structures that can withstand the stress and temperature loads in hypersonic flight, and to imbed sensors and other small scale features for advanced “smart structures.”

Project: I-71/SR 665 Interchange Improvements, Grove City, OH
Requestor: Ohio Department of Transportation
1980 West Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43223
Amount: $5,000,000
Description: This project includes the construction of a Single Point Urban Interchange, replacing the narrow rural diamond configuration currently in place. SR665 will be widened as it passes through the interchange, with the new roadway varying from sixty to ninety feet in width to accommodate four through lanes and three turn lanes. A single signalized intersection will control all traffic through the interchange.

Project: I Know I Can, College Access Program 
Requestor: I Know I Can
3798 E. Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43213
Amount: $125,000
Description: This project is designed to inspire, enable and support Columbus City School students in pursuing and completing college.

Project: i-SAFE e-Safety Education and Outreach Initiative
Requestor: i-SAFE, Inc.
5900 Pasteur Court, Suite 100
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Amount: $2,000,000
Description: i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation that has been providing, since 2002, Internet Safety curriculum to over 7.2 million students nationwide. Parents, educators, law enforcement and industry rely on i-SAFE to educate citizens in all 50 states about how to remain safe from online predators, consumer fraud, bullying and many other online victimization schemes. I urge the subcommittee to provide $2 million to help i-SAFE reach 10 million students by the end of 2010.

Project:  Improved Fischer-Tropsch Reactor
Requestor:  Velocys, Inc.
7950 Corporate Boulevard
Plain City, OH  43064
Amount:  $1,000,000
Description:  The Air Force is constructing a $10 million synthetic jet fuel demonstration facility at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH.  This project will demonstrate a synthetic fuels reactor that lowers cost and/or improves productivity of synthetic fuel production.  Velocys was selected as one of the participants in this project and is currently constructing a Fischer-Tropsch field demonstration skid that will be installed and operated at Wright-Patterson.  While this unit will have 10-15 fold greater productivity than commercially available systems, preliminary studies indicate the potential for further improvement, possibly even doubling the productivity level.

Project:  Joint Operations Center
Requestor:  Ohio National Guard
2825 W. Dublin Granville Road
Columbus, OH
Amount:  $2,000,000
Description:  Construction of a $2 million add/alt to expand and upgrade the Joint Operations Center at the Ohio National Guard’s state headquarters.  This would dramatically enhance the command and control capabilities of Ohio’s Joint Force Headquarters. 

Project: Kids Come First:  A Coalition for Child Care Resources
Requestor: Action for Children
78 Jefferson Ave., Columbus, OH 43215
Amount: $500,000
Description: The funding would be used for renovating the Columbus Early Learning Center, the South Side Learning and Development Center and the Action for Children buildings. They are many decades old and all Coalition members are spending increasing percentages of their funds to patch ages roofs and maintain outdated space. The agencies hope to gain strength and efficiency and ensure that precious resources will be used wisely to renovate buildings to make them all safe, energy efficient, “green” places for children to learn and for child care professionals to learn and work.

Project:  Laser Shock Peening RapidCoater Technology
Requestor:  LSP Technologies
6145 Scherers Place
Dublin, OH  43016
Amount:  $1,000,000
Description:  Development of laser peening technology (LSPRT) to extend the life of light critical components on Army helicopters, including the AH-64 Apache and the CH-47 Chinook.  Efforts are focused on optimizing methods to toughen the carburized steel gears and splines used in the propulsion systems for these helicopters.  LSPRT capabilities are being expanded specifically for Army helicopter applications.  It will also be applicable to other cross service applications.

Project:  Marysville Water Treatment Facility
Requestor: City of Marysville
125 E. 6th St.
Marysville, OH 43040
Amount:  $825,000
Description:  This project will provide updates to the water treatment facilities to improve water quality and quantity. This will ensure safe drinking water for the citizens of Marysville and neighboring citizens.

Project:  Multifunctional Materials, Their Applications and Devices
Requestor:  The Ohio State University
205 Drees Laboratory
2015 Neil Avenue
Columbus, OH  43210
Amount:  $5,000,000
Description:  This research will help to understand, design and manufacture Multifunctional Oxide Materials – crystalline ceramics that can control high electric and magnetic fields in electronics whose properties are vital to communications and sensing in commercial and defense applications.

Project: National Center of Excellence in Energy Storage Technology
Requestor: The Ohio State University
Center for Automotive Research; 930 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH 43210
Amount Requested: $5,000,000
Description: The goal of this program is to establish a national Center of Excellence in Energy Storage Technology and development with focus on both mobile and stationary applications. The center of excellence is intended to be a partnership between the OSU Center for Automotive Research and American Electric Power, with the possible involvement of other partners, such as EWI. The establishment of such a center through an initial grant will clearly establish Ohio State and its partners as leaders in this important field, with the potential for significant commercialization and job creation opportunities in Ohio. Fundamental advances in energy storage systems will have an immediate and lasting impact on the transition from a carbon based energy economy to a wide range of alternative, renewable energy sources that depend on energy storage to guarantee continuity of power supply (e.g.: solar, wind). One of the most immediate consequences will be greater penetration of electric power in transportation systems through plug-in hybrid electric and electric vehicles. Further, the electric power grid can significantly benefit from distributed energy storage, either by inexpensive, small-scale batteries distributed throughout the power grid or by using vehicle batteries to assume this role, and it is quite likely that the market for stationary energy storage will increase dramatically in the future and will be based on the same technology as that of plugin hybrid electric vehicles. Energy storage continues to be the most significant limitation to the transition to electricity as a transportation fuel and in the implementation of distributed energy storage on the smart grid. Further, the U.S. is lagging in the development of energy storage devices and systems, with most of the commercial development in advanced batteries taking place in Japan, China and Korea. Today, virtually 100% of the production of commercial Lithium-ion cells (used in virtually all hybrid electric vehicles and all portable electronic devices) takes place outside the U.S.A.  One major way in which the U.S. can leapfrog over foreign battery production is to develop next generation batteries that have significantly improved performance. Current battery development is based largely on trial-and-error development cycles, which are not well-guided by a clear understanding of the scientific and engineering principles that impact performance. The proposed center will leverage the strong relationships OSU, AEP and their partners have with the automotive, electric power and energy storage industries to establish a unique capability to develop and transfer energy storage system technology through a fundamental understanding of damage and aging mechanisms and through the development of new materials and system concepts.  OSU and its partners are in an excellent position to lead one of small number of national centers of excellence in energy storage technology; funding for these centers should be appropriated in the near future.

Project: National Gear Testing and Research Center
Requestor: The Ohio State University
E309 Scott Lab; 201 W 19th Ave
Columbus, OH 43210
Amount: $2,000,000
Description:  Gears are highly engineered precision machine elements that play a critical role in most aerospace, naval, ground vehicle and wind turbine applications. Focusing on wind turbines, a high ratio gearbox connects the main rotor of the blades to the power generator while increasing the rotational speed by 25 to 100 times. A typical wind turbine gearbox uses a compound planetary gear train and a multi stage final drive unit. It must endure erratic loading conditions due to the unpredictable nature of wind time histories. As a result, the wind turbine industry has been struggling with development of next generation multi megawatt turbine gearboxes. Field experience with wind turbine gearboxes indicate that the current life span is limited to years on average while their intended life span is 25 years. As gear and bearing failures are commonly identified as the root cause for most of the turbine failures, extensive theoretical and experimental studies must be performed at a fundamental level to identify and implement ways to improve the life span of wind turbine gearboxes. Equally important are the noise concerns from wind turbines. Wind turbine gearboxes are known to produce high pitch gear whine type noise that is very undesirable for turbine applications near residential areas and off shore. The solution of this issue also requires a focused effort to develop design methodologies that are tailored specifically for wind turbine gear noise issues. In other parts of the world, specifically in Europe and the Far East, partnerships between the government, wind industry and universities have long been formed to work on the these fundamental gearbox related problems on a pre competitive level. Such a concerted effort has yet to be implemented in US, beyond the activities of the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL). This puts the US energy industry in a severe competitive disadvantage. This proposal aims at filling this void through formation of a formidable research center dedicated to investigating problems facing the US wind energy companies. The Ohio State Gear Research team can make significant contributions to wind turbine research in general and more specifically to the enhancement of wind turbine transmission durability and noise reduction. The proposed center will focus on both theoretical and experimental investigations with the goal of providing real life solutions to the real life turbine gearbox problems. On the theoretical side, we propose to develop models to predict and optimize the fatigue life and lubrication conditions of gear and bearing components through tribology, materials, heat treatment and surface engineering measures. We also propose models to predict and minimize surface wear of the same components. In addition, we will develop a family of dynamics and noise models to address several aspects of this problem, ranging from excitation source minimization to transmission path and noise radiation optimization studies. We also propose to incorporate additional adverse effects caused by the dynamic behavior on the durability of the turbine gearboxes. This center will develop a state of the art experimental test facility directed towards the needs of the wind turbine gearbox applications. This facility will include standard test machines required to evaluate, characterize and rank order candidate wind turbine gear and bearing materials for their fatigue performance in reaction to contact and tooth bending. As such evaluations require long cycle testing, a large number of test machines will be acquired for this task and full time staff will be hired to perform the tests. The test facility will include component level set ups to specifically investigate noise generation mechanisms, bearing force transmission paths, surface finish effects on gears and bearings and characterization of gear and bearing parameters for theoretical models. Finally, the center will develop a new full or reduced scale dynamometer facility to test entire turbine gearboxes under realistic operating conditions. Tests using this facility will (i) provide much needed experimental data for validation of the models and (ii) allow empirical investigation of new ideas and techniques. Because Ohio State experiences have a unique blend between gear experimentation and the development of analytical models for gear analysis, we are uniquely qualified to develop and lead the proposed center. Our contacts and experiences with the wind turbine industry will allow us to provide meaningful guidance for the Center and will allow us to interact with the industry in a positive manner.

Project:  Neuroscience Clinical Gene Therapy Center
Requestor:  James Cancer Hospital at The Ohio State University Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital
N-1017 Doan Hall
410 W. 10th Avenue
Columbus, OH  43210
Amount:  $5,000,000
Description:  This project expands the Neuroscience Clinical Gene Therapy Center to target therapies for incurable cancers and neuromuscular disorder, including Phase I clinical trials.  The Center will facilitate the progression and translation of gene therapy from the laboratory bench into clinical trials for effective disease prevention and personalized therapeutic care.

Project: New Well and Solar Panels
Requestor: Fairbanks Local Schools
11158 St. Rt. 38
Milford Center, OH 43045
Amount:  $40,000
Description:  School would like to install one or two Ingrid Plug and Play solar panels for green technology instruction and energy conservation. Furthermore, they are requesting two new wells between two new practice fields that they could use for watering the fields and for drinking water for students.

Project: Ohio Advanced Energy Manufacturing Center
Requestor: Edison Welding Institute
1250 Arthur E. Adams Dr.
Columbus, OH 43221
Amount Requested: $5,000,000
Description:  As advanced energy technologies and products proceed toward commercialization, manufacturers face a simple, but profound challenge. In a National Public Radio interview which aired on January 28, Ray Lane, partner in Kleiner Perkins' green-tech practice, remarked, the prices at which at which we sell electric cars, or the prices at which we provide renewable energy, solar or wind, must be competitive with the current fossil fuel prices. Now there might be some incentives that help us, but it must compete. Consumers typically will not pay a premium to go green. Yet, simply put, advanced energy sources are typically more expensive than the incumbent technologies. While the lower cost of process inputs (wind, sunlight, biomass) are comparable to or cheaper than conventional sources, the hardware for energy conversion is more complex and relies on more expensive materials of construction in order to perform. Also, petroleum refineries and current utility-scale power generation achieve increased production effectiveness as a function of facility size - the bigger the better. On the other hand, the distributed nature of the energy inputs and the cost of feedstock transportation for biofuels means new technology developers must achieve economics at smaller scale. The inability of a clear path to producing energy innovations at a competitive price point makes it difficult to attract capital and move forward on the commercialization path. Getting there requires development of component designs and manufacturing processes more effective than those used to produce incumbent energy systems. Over 45% of the manufacturers responding to the survey indicated that new production technology needs to be developed in order for production to support their new products. At the same time, many of these companies are working to sell across a number of advanced energy market verticals; these may have widely differing procedures and requirements.  Doing so will allow them to compete with and effectively supplement conventional sources of energy and transform an award-winning technology into a job-creating business. However, regardless of size, these companies are in a start-up mode, and often do not have the necessary experience or resources in manufacturing technology development to achieve the necessary product economics. Given the economic realities of today's business environment, finding ways to accelerate this transition can make the difference between success and failure for a new product or business. A key role for state and local government would be to provide technical support structures and services to these emerging industries that will allow them to move rapidly to operating models that are competitive with traditional energy sources. With that competitive posture, these Ohio
companies can compete on global scale to supply clean energy.

Project: Ohio Biogas Development Project
Requestor: Clean Fuels Ohio
3400 North High Street, Suite 430
Columbus, OH 43202
Amount Requested: $1,000,000
Description: Clean Ohio Fuels believes an essential step in energy independence is for states such as Ohio to take whatever steps possible to develop its own sources of alternative fuels. Thus, they are planning to launch a Biogas Development initiative with a focus on the development of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) out of various sources of biogas. Sources for biogas exist all over Ohio from agriculture, waste water treatment plants, anaerobic bio waste treatment facilities and the larger source is probable the many solid waste landfills that are spread out all over the state. Several landfill waste to gas projects have been started in Ohio - in particular the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) and the Rumpke- Duke-Energy Project in Hamilton County. Turning landfills and other biogas sources into a productive energy source will turn a community challenge into a community asset over night.

Project: Ohio Clean & Green Bus Replacement Initiative
Recipient: Ohio Public Transit Association
2208 Arlington Avenue, #3
Columbus, OH 43221
Amount: $2,000,000
Description: This project is an initiative of the Ohio Public Transit Association and its member transit agencies in 53 Ohio counties including COTA in Franklin County. The Clean & Green Bus Replacements Initiative covers the Ohio transit systems in the following counties: Allen, Ashland, Ashtabula, Athens, Carroll, Columbiana, Champaign, Clermont, Franklin, Crawford, Delaware, Belmont, Fayette, Cuyahoga, Montgomery, Geauga, Greene, Butler, Hancock, Harrison, Hamilton, Huron, Lake, Fairfield, Erie, Licking, Hocking, Lorain, Marion, Medina, Summit, Miami, Knox, Monroe, Morgan, Ottawa, Portage, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Richland, Ross, Sandusky, Scioto, Muskingum, Guernsey, Seneca, Shelby, Stark, Lucas, Warren, Wood and Washington. The Ohio Public Transit Association (OPTA) proposes that the public transit fleet in the State of Ohio be the greenest and cleanest in the nation. To accomplish this, we are seeking funding for the purchase of 500 clean and environmentally friendly Electric or Bio-Fuel Propulsion buses. These will replace the approximately 500 buses in Ohio that are beyond their useful life, not environmentally friendly, unreliable and expensive to maintain.  Funding for these new Clean and Green buses will be distributed to transit agencies throughout the State.

Project: Ohio Hub Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati Rail Corridor Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement
Requestor: Ohio Rail Development Commission
50 West Broad Street, Suite 1510
Columbus, OH 43215
Amount: $3,070,000
Description: The Ohio Rail Development Commission and the Ohio Department of Transportation have studied the feasibility of expanding transportation capacity by improving the regional railroad system for both passenger and freight trains. These efforts have resulted in the Ohio Hub System Plan, a 1,244-mile interstate rail network with 46 passenger stations serving 22 million people in five states and southern Ontario, Canada. The Ohio Hub rail corridors would interconnect with the proposed Midwest Regional Rail System, New York's Empire corridor, Pennsylvania's Keystone corridor, and VIA Rail Canada. The system would be integrated into the region's air, highway and local transit networks and would connect to international airports. On the basis of criteria established by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) the proposed Ohio Hub rail corridors are considered feasible and the system would be an appropriate extension of the nation's federally recognized passenger rail network. The results of two economic impact reports confirmed that the economic benefits justify the investment, that construction is justifiable assuming an 80% federal construction match, and that the system will not be a burden on the State's annual budget. The objective in planning Ohio Hub rail corridor investments is to provide additional rail capacity for passenger trains while improving safety and removing impediments to efficient freight and passenger rail operations. If fully funded through its construction phases, it would take approximately seven years to plan, design and construct the rail improvements needed to operate reliable, fast, frequent passenger service with train speeds up to 110-MPH.

Project: Ohio Propane Vehicle Project
Recipient: Clean Fuels Ohio (CFO)
3400 North High Street, Suite 430
Columbus, OH 43202
Amount: $1,000,000
Description: To make Ohio leader in energy independence and improvements in our air quality, CFO is planning on coordinating a group purchase of NGVs and conversions of existing vehicles into NGVs. The goal is to purchase or convert over 500 vehicles and then a distribution of these vehicles through a competitive process with cities in Franklin County, Cuyahoga County, Lucas County, Summit County, Stark County, Mahoning County, Muskingum County, Lawrence County, Clark County, Montgomery County, and Hamilton County. These vehicles would be concentrated among government-related fleets and the project would work closely with university-based researchers to study these vehicles daily patterns of use, durability, charging patterns, operational costs per mile and other factors. Information also would be shared with team members representing electric utilities. In addition, critical fueling stations and related infrastructure will need to be built to ensure the NGV fleets are a success. Providing hundreds of NGVs will turn into a complete failure if they lack the adequate fueling stations and related infrastructure.

Project:  Our Military Kids Grant Program
Requestor:  Our Military Kids
6861 Elm Street, Suite 2A
McLean, VA  22101
Amount:  $3,500,000
Description:  Our Military Kids provides grants to cover fees associated with tutoring, athletic, or fine arts programs for children of deployed National Guard and Reserve forces and of severely injured service members of the active and reserve military.  This program ensures that these children have access to activities that might otherwise be unavailable to them as a result of economic hardship caused by a parent’s deployment, recovery from severe injury, or because they live too far from a military installation to avail themselves of the many options provided there.  Nationally, a recent survey has shown that 65% of all Guard and Reserve families utilizing the Our Military Kids program live more than 30 miles from the nearest military base. Since April 2005, Our Military Kids has awarded over 7,000 grants in all 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Project: Project Opportunity 
Requestor: Goodwill Columbus
1313 Edgehill Rd.
Columbus, OH 43212
Amount: $267,550
Description: This program provides job-readiness and on-the-job retail training to youth with disabilities ages 18-21 with an Individualized Education Plan who've completed graduation coursework but still are enrolled in Central Ohio schools.

Project:  Renewable Energy Demonstration Project
Requestor:  Ohio National Guard
2825 W. Dublin Granville Road
Columbus, OH  43235
Amount:  $560,000
Description:  Construction of a Solar Power Generation Demonstration Project at the state headquarters, Beightler Armory, Columbus, Ohio.  In the first year, this project will save over 156,000 Kilowatt Hours of electricity.

Project:  Sanitary Sewer Improvement 
Requestor: City of Worthington
6550 North High St.
Worthington, OH 43085
Amount:  $1,069,750
Description:  This project consists of studies of all sanitary sewers in the City and completion of needed improvements identified in the studies. Improvement of the sewer systems will provide a cleaner watershed for the area.

Project: Scioto Trail Riversedge to Fifth Avenue, Columbus, OH
Recipient: City of Columbus
90 West Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Amount: $775,000
Description: This extension of the Scioto Trail adds a key shared use path to the northwest side of Columbus, with linkages to the communities of Grandview Heights, Marble Cliffs, and Upper Arlington. Currently, the path ends at Riversedge Office Complex on Dublin Road, and does not directly connect to a publicly accessible entry. By constructing this 0.85 mile extension to Fifth Avenue, thousands of residents will be directly connected to an expanding regional bike/ped network, and have a non-motorized commuting option to downtown. By 2010, over 9 miles of Scioto Trail will be completed, from the far south side of Columbus, to the southern starting point of this project. The Dublin Road corridor is exclusively 4-lane vehicle traffic. Over 14 commercial businesses and corporate offices are along this project. Once completed, inner suburban communities will have a tie in to the regional trail network.

Project: Somali Youth Project  
Requestor: Horn of Africa Community Center Inc.
2154 Eddy Stone Ave.
Columbus, OH 43224
Amount: $300,000
Description: The Somali Youth Project seeks to alleviate excessive scholastic and peer pressures leading to juvenile delinquency, by providing supplemental training, assistance, capacity building and communication skills.

Project: The Ohio State University Cancer Program Expansion
Requestor: The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center: James Cancer Hospital and Richard Solove Institute
300 West 10th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Amount: $5,000,000
Description: The new hospital will establish a region of excellence for the U.S. in cancer therapy, prevention and translation of research into clinically and commercially relevant treatments for Ohioans and beyond.