WASHINGTON – A near-final spending bill released Tuesday night has $1.25 million for the development of Red Mountain Park in Birmingham, 1,100 acres of former mining land set to become one of the largest urban parks in the country.
The money, part of the federal transportation budget, will be used to either help pay off the cost of buying the property from U.S. Steel or go toward construction of the trail that will loop around the park, according to Steve Jones, chairman of the Red Mountain Park and Greenway Commission.
“This is really great news, especially for somebody like us just trying to start a park,” Jones said Tuesday.
Advocates of the project had been lobbying Alabama’s congressional delegation to carve out federal dollars to help pay the bill. The land, appraised at $16.5 million, was purchased for $7 million, and development costs are expected to be significantly higher.
The House version of the federal transportation bill approved earlier this year had $250,000 for the park, sponsored by Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills. The Senate version had none, but when negotiators from both chambers hammered out a compromise version behind closed doors, another $1 million for Red Mountain Park was added.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been critical of the increasing amounts of earmarks in the federal budgets, requested the money for the park (see his remarks here).
“It is certainly my preference and it’s better government if matters come in through the normal committee process,” Sessions said. “Overall we felt like this would be a great addition to the whole community and … the community was already stepping up with a great deal of investment themselves, so I think it’s a legitimate project.”
Bachus called the money a good investment in the health and economy of the region.
“Red Mountain Park will provide our residents with some of the best recreational and nature experiences in the country,” Bachus said. “Companies looking to locate in a community are increasingly looking for recreational opportunities for their families.”
The compromise legislation must get renewed approval from the House and Senate and be signed by the president before the money is available.
President Bush on Tuesday vetoed a different federal spending bill in part because it contained too many earmarks for special local projects. Although he supports the veto of the labor, health and education bill, Sessions said he hoped the final transportation and housing bill would not suffer a similar fate.
“Just because you have a project in a piece of legislation doesn’t mean you would automatically vote for it if the overall bill, which is billions and billions of dollars, is not sound. I hope we don’t get to that point,” Sessions said.
Some of the other Alabama projects expecting funding, according to the legislation and Sen. Richard Shelby’s office, are: $550,000 for the injury control research center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; $500,000 for trauma care research at UAB; $250,000 for the Jimmie Hale Mission; $1.58 million to upgrade the Franklin Field Airport in Bullock County; $100,000 to renovate Helen Keller’s birthplace in Tuscumbia; $22.5 million for the expansion of Interstate 85 from Montgomery to Cuba, Ala.; and $4.2 million for the revitalization of downtown Tuscaloosa.
EMAIL: morndorff@bhamnews.com
