Van Nuys, CA– Representative Howard L. Berman (D-CA) announced today that Congress has approved his request to fund the following projects earmarked in the FY05 omnibus appropriations bill. The following projects in the San Fernando Valley were included in the FY05 omnibus appropriations bill:

 

$1,000,000 - The Pacoima Wash Mountain Parkway Project - for a regional bike staging area and a 3.25 mile bike path connecting recreational parks with the Angeles National Forest. Design includes permeable bike path, protective decorative fencing along the wash, signage and striping of bridge crossings, crossing of rail bridge and landscaping with native planting and temporary irrigation.

 

$535,000 - Communities In Schools, “Jobs Create Peace Project/Striving for Success” - to help expand the job preparedness activities and job placement programs for youth and young adults currently in or at risk of joining gangs, but who have shown a willingness to turn their lives around.
 
$500,000 - L.A. Valley College Bus Transit Station Extension Project - to extend the federally funded Bus Rapid Transit station at Los Angeles Valley College to the campus and improve transit access to the 19,000-student community college, the 800-student Grant High School, the Jewish Community Center, and the general public.
 
$265,000 - Mission Community Hospital, San Fernando Community Campus Health & Education
program -  to help renovate and fully equip the 28,000 square foot former acute care facility for use as a freestanding ambulatory care and profession/community education facility housing dentistry, podiatry and optometry. 

 

$200,000 - Jewish Vocational Services of Los Angeles, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Training Initiative - to train and manage new CNA’s to overcome a critical shortage of these healthcare workers. CNA training will be done at L.A Valley College. 

 

$125,000  $97,000 - Pacoima Community Federal Credit Union – to help fund the startup cost and allow this credit union to lend over $4,000,000 to local residents and businesses.

 

$100,000 - WAVE - Expansion of services at the Harbour Community domestic violence program - to help fund the expansion of job preparedness activities and job placements program for the residents of the largest domestic violence shelter program on the west coast.

 

$100,000 - Tujunga Wash Restoration Project  – to help create an alternative, meandering
streamcourse along the west bank of the channel and provide native habitat within and alongside the stream. In FY03 the Corps completed a 905(b) report for the lower Tujunga Wash watershed that identified a Federal interest for ecosystem restoration.
 
$97,000 - Sylmar Multi-Generational Center at Sylmar Recreation Center and Park – for badly needed renovation and modernization. The new center will provide senior citizens and children classroom space and several offices for non-profit service providers to facilitate their programs.
 
 $38,000 - Sun Valley Watershed Project - to help continue the mitigation efforts necessary to rectify the problems of flooding in the Sun Valley area.
 
Hansen Dam Clean-up (Remove all the debris dumped into the lower lakes)
Specific Report Language in the bill directs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
“Remove all debris dumped by the Corps into the Hansen Dam Lower Lakes in 2003
 and undertake all appropriate mitigation.”  The language was originally inserted in the appropriationsbill to jump start the process and to give it the force of law.