The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency - NOACA - is lobbying "every approriate office in the Capital" to pass a National Economic Stimulus Package with a strong infrastructure component.
NOACA is instrumental in deciding which transportation projects take precedence in the region.
It's pushing a long list of area needs, from the innerbelt, to local transit operations, to highway construction and repair across five counties: Medina, Lake, Geauga, Lorain and Cuyahoga.
NOACA Executive Director Howard Meier says determining which projects the region needs most is underway, but he knows competition for the cash - will be fierce.
Meier:"Throughout the country there will be regions going through exactly the same exercises we are saying, we need to figure out what the magnitude of our needs are, and be able to identify projects that are out there that we could get started."}
NOACA has targeted 197 million dollars in projects that could be started almost immediately, putting people to work at construction jobs.
Rick Jackson,
90.3.
