2009 Stimulus Check

It doesn’t sound much but the $7530 2009 Stimulus Check that Flaxville will receive is approximately one quarter of its annual budget.

From the $800 billion 2009 stimulus package, a stimulus check of $10 million trickled down to the 129 cities and towns of Montana. Each towns municipal government received at least $5000 making approximately 6.5 million dollars. The other 3.5 million dollars was allocated on the basis of population and gas appropriations.

The Mayor of Flaxville, Connie Wittak, describes the stimulus check as a big boost for Flaxville which is located just 15 miles south of Canada in Daniels County and has a population of just over 100 people.  The stimulus money will be used to pay for sand-blasting and repainting the inside of the town’s water tank. This should provide employment for up to 5 people over a period of 3 months.

Mayor Wittak said she expects the cost of the project to be more than the stimulus check they will receive and that the extra funds will have to be found elsewhere. She estimates that the work will be completed by next summer which fits in nicely with the restriction that all 2009 stimulus check money needs to be spent by September 30th 2010.

Alec Hansen, director of the Montana League of Cities said most of the local governments had no problem proposing worthy causes for the stimulus funding. A large number of the towns and cities had several maintenance projects “on hold” so they generally just picked one that could not be considered frivolous and which was estimated to cost more than the amount of the stimulus check to which they might be entitled.

Another small town to benefit from the 2009 stimulus check package is Brockton, a Missouri River town in Roosevelt County with a population of 245. They thought that their request for a grant of $750,000 to repair the town’s sewage lagoon, which was damaged in the Spring by floods, was not going to be granted. However because of an extra $23 million of stimulus money which made its way to the Treasure State Endowment Program, all 66 projects which had been submitted were granted the funds they required. Up until the stimulus money, the Brockton project was number 66 on the list.