Heath Shuler’s Appropriation Requests

Fence-walking Heath Shuler is looking at bringing home some excellent infrastructure money in next year’s federal budget. WNC sends millions of dollars to Washington, and it’s imperative that we get a lot of that money returned to the community in the form of forward looking projects. Shuler’s wish list is chock full of good stuff. There are eighty projects in the $80 million dollar list, and here’s a sampling:

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Foundation
$500,000
This project will spur innovation in biofuels and fuel cells, aligning western North
Carolina’s agricultural and intellectual capital to address regional energy needs.

Bent Creek Institute of the NC Arboretum
$504,000
Bent Creek Institute works to develop new cancer treatments that will not harm normal
cells. This project (1) supports the collection and production of promising anti-cancer
plants through our Germplasm Repository and (2) significantly extends our ability to
understand which components of the plants possess the anti-cancer activity.

Buncombe County
$3,500,000
Buncombe County hopes to expand the existing pretreatment
system with aid from Federal funding, a by-product of which would be the
production of larger quantities of landfill gas through enhanced waste decomposition.
This increase in gas will make electrical generation from the gas viable, and a 1.4 MW
electric generator would be installed to supply enough renewable energy to power 1,100
homes in the landfill’s vicinity.

City of Asheville
$500,000
This project intends to replace 75 percent (fifteen buses) of the transit fleet. In the 2008
Appropriation the first five (5) buses of this replacement program were received.
Asheville Transit is seeking five (5) hybrids buses from the 2010 Appropriations and an
additional five (5) hybrids in future years Appropriations.

City of Asheville
$749,000
Installation of programmable thermostats, light occupancy sensors, and energy
efficiency lighting in all 51 city buildings.

Mission Hospital
$1,000,000
Mission Hospitals has invested eight years and $75 million into creating an integrated
clinical information system (ICIS) that incorporates CPOE as an integral component. A
successful CPOE promises tremendous enhancements in patient care, error reduction
and process efficiencies.

Moog, Inc.
$2,000,000
The purpose of this project is to develop shipboard-qualified prototype electric actuators
and demonstrate their satisfactory performance in shipboard applications. Successful
completion of the technology will reduce shipboard personnel and reduce repair and
maintenance costs. The Department of the Navy has repeatedly stated its desire for an
all-electric ship using this technology.

Mountain Area Health Education Center, Inc.
$821,180
Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) is requesting funds to integrate stateof-
the-art technology into classrooms and conference rooms in a new education facility
to be completed in June 2010. The facility will serve as a regional hub for healthcare
strategic planning, workforce shortage monitoring, partnership initiatives, best practices
implementation, and research. It will also provide health information, resources,
education, and training to the public

North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center
$2,000,000
The Rural Center Water and Wastewater System Efficiency Program provides planning
assistance for a town to conduct a water audit and to undertake a leak detection
program to identify sources of major underground water loss in either the water or
sewer system.

Swain County
$6,000,000
Contribution to funding for a settlement of the U.S. Department of Interior’s obligations
to Swain County, in lieu of constructing the North Shore Road.