With his hat in his hand, begging for some of the “stimulus” pie:
Frank J. Wilson, our president & CEO, was scheduled to host the chat. He had to fly to Washington today for an unexpected trip to meet with Congressional leaders on METRO’s funding needs, as part of the proposed economic stimulus package.
And the head of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says things are looking good for METRO:
Houston Metro is due to receive as much as $180 million over the next 12 months from a huge economic stimulus bill to help jump-start construction of two light rail lines, a House committee chairman said Wednesday.
The long-delayed rail lines on the city’s north and southeast sides are a “very high-rated project,” said Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., who heads the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The project, he said, is ready to go and has cleared all but one step of a federal review.
“I will work with the Houston (congressional) delegation and with the Federal Transit Administration to process this project along,” Oberstar told the Houston Chronicle.
Asked if Metro’s overall request for $410 million from the economic stimulus bill had been realistic, Oberstar replied, “I should think so.”
[snip]
Oberstar’s comments followed an hourlong, closed-door meeting with a delegation that included Frank J. Wilson, the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s president and CEO, and Democratic Reps. Al Green and Sheila Jackson Lee. Also present were Houston Metro board members Burt Ballanfant. George DeMontrond and Jimmy Stewart, and Houston City Council member Sue Lovell.
“We are delighted with what we heard today,” Wilson said after the meeting, adding that Metro has a champion in Oberstar.
Like flies drawn to … well, you know.
One can only imagine the backflips Mr. Procurement Disaster was doing after his meeting.
Meanwhile, in unrelated news, while METRO continues to scratch its head over declining ridership numbers, a homeless man was killed by a METRO bus after getting “into a scuffle with another man at a METRO bus stop, possibly over food the other man had.” Who wouldn’t want to ride the bus and witness such events?
