Your stimulus dollars at work: 40 jobs for $42 million

By Leisa Zigman, I-Team Reporter

KSDK -- In February, Congress passed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Its number one goal was to create and maintain jobs. In our ongoing effort to track stimulus dollars, NewsChannel 5 found some pretty low jobs numbers in two out of three local communities.

The zip code 63376 which covers St. Peters, Missouri, has so far received $6,715,377 in stimulus money in grants and contracts. According to the federal government's official Recovery.gov website, that money has created or saved zero jobs.

"We're not planning on adding full time staff. We'll use a lot of volunteers," said St. Peters Health and Environmental Services manager Ron Darling. "There may be an intern but not a full time city job."

Only a portion of the six million dollars went to the City of St. Peters.  Ron Darling, an environmental manager with the city of St. Peters,  received $512,000 to use towards energy efficiency. Part of the money will pay for 30,000 CFL light bulbs and will be distributed to every home in St. Peters.

"These little guys, they're just jewels in energy efficiency," Darling said.

While the city won't be adding jobs, Darling said businesses will ultimately benefit.

"If I buy 30,000 bulbs am I saving jobs or creating jobs? You tell me," he said.

The City of St. Peters also plans to spend $51,000 for its police department. Some of that money will buy officers rechargeable flashlights.

Other funds in the 63376 zip code will go to St. Charles County Government. About $1,717,291 will be spent helping retrain and re-educate people who are looking for jobs.

On the Recovery.Gov website, all you have to do is plug in a zip code and track how the money is being spent in that area. The 63105 zip code covers Clayton and includes the St. Louis County Government Center. The zipcode 63105 has received $42,793,663 in grants. That money has created 40 jobs. That works out to more than a million stimulus dollars for every single job either created or saved in the 63105 zip code.

Officials with St. Louis County say the jobs numbers are small now because not all of the contracts have been awarded. Some $20 million is going toward the Page Avenue Extension and that is expected to create or save 560 construction jobs.

In the Belleville, Illinois, zip code of 62220, more than $18 million has been awarded. Officials claim it's creating or saving 78 labor and supplier jobs. Belleville's stimulus coordinator did not return phone calls to explain details about the jobs created or saved.

If you want to check out how your community is spending stimulus money and how many jobs its created click www.recovery.gov.  Just type in your zip code underneath the home page map. Once your area appears, you can click on the blue dots and read details about the project approved. If you find something you want us to check out, e-mail lzigman@ksdk.com.