Feds OK money for Petaluma projects

<p>Petaluma Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey has announced that a series of spending bills passed or headed toward passage by the House of Representatives includes money for local projects.</p><p>Chief among them is $1.8 million for flood control in Petaluma, to be used for repairing damaged banks along the Petaluma River, completing a concrete floodwall and examining the effectiveness of the Payran flood-control project.</p><p>The money is on top of $3.2 million, to be spent this summer and fall, on removing an old railroad trestle near Lakeville Street that restricts the flow of water.</p><p>Woolsey is also backing an award of $150,000 for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and related facilities, including Petaluma Valley Hospital.</p><p>The money, allocated by a House committee but not yet passed by the full Congress, would be used for electronic equipment so doctors in Santa Rosa can monitor patients remotely.</p><p>Woolsey said she is also seeking $284,000 in Homeland Security money for new masks and oxygen tanks for the Petaluma Fire Depart-ment. The money hasn’t been voted on yet, her spokesman said.</p><p>Woolsey had also requested $2 million for the Marin-Sonoma Narrows widening project on Highway 101 and $5.5 million for Petaluma River dredging, but those requests were not included in the appropriations, spokes-man Chris Shields said.</p><p>“Unfortunately, they’re not all met,” he said of Woolsey’s funding requests. With 435 House members seeking funding for projects in their districts, “we submit a list and we get a smaller one back.”</p><p>Transportation funding passed by the House Appropriations Committee did include $2 million for the preparation of an environmental impact statement and engineering work for the SMART commuter rail project in the North Bay.</p><p>More than $7.5 million was also approved by the House for continued operation of Warm Springs Dam on Lake Sonoma, which provides water to Sonoma County cities.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier. com)</p>