City officials say it does not look likely
CANYON -- The recent stimulus bill added up to nearly $800 billion.
With a good chunk of that money going to community projects and programs, you might think your city should directly benefit.
But Canyon is not so optimistic.
The city filed just one request for stimulus money: a $3.8 million water infrastructure project that will prevent them from having to rely on Amarillo for their supply. But it does not look likely the project will receive funding.
"I don't want anybody in Canyon, Texas to believe that we are for sure going to get this $3.8 million and complete this project. I don't want anybody to believe that. I don't want to mislead anyone there because we just simply don't know that," said Randy Criswell, Canyon City Manager.
The Texas Water Development Board will distribute the money. The board received more than $9.5 billion in requests for money and have only 340 million to give out.
Altogether, the Texas Water Development Board received about 950 project bids.
So it looks likely Canyon will have to fund its own $3.8 million project.
"The beauty of this potential for the stimulus package dollars is that it spread that $3.8 million burden out over all of the taxpayers of the United States not just the 13 thousand that live in Canyon," said Criswell. "It's a direct and large benefit to our residents if we could get those dollars from the federal government to do this project."
Even without federal funding, Criswell says the project will go forward in the next five to ten years.
"It's one we're going to have to do anyway sooner or later and we're going to have to fund it somehow," Criswell said.
