Tracking your stimulus $$$

By Derek Simmonsen
Posted: July 9, 2009

There has been a lot of talk lately about regular citizens taking more of a role in producing the journalism of the future.

Now you’ve got a chance — right here in Howard County.

ProPublica, the non-profit investigative journalism organization, has launched a new enterprise called “Adopt a Stimulus Project.”

The idea is that people around the country sign up to monitor individual construction projects in their community, and when all of that information is collected, it will give an overall view of what’s happening with the roughly $27 billion in federal funds set aside for road and bridge projects.

“Monitoring thousands of construction sites around the country is an impossible task for a single reporter. Or a handful of reporters. That’s why we need your help,” ProPublica explains on its site. There’s another good interview about the project here.

The site’s database has more than 5,000 projects, about 105 of them in Maryland.

Out of those, there are two Howard County listings totaling about $9.7 million worth of roadwork. There are also a lot of statewide projects listed, though I imagine those would be a little trickier to keep track of (especially if the work stretches from one end of the state to the other).

In talking with county officials, it looks as if Howard County is still trying to get approval for that money, so there aren’t actually any shovels in the ground yet. The reporters here will continue to watch the money, but our works goes on ExploreHoward, not to other organizations.

That’s where you come in. With the wealth of bloggers and citizen activists here in Howard County, I’m sure someone out there is up to the task of keeping future tabs on these efforts for the ProPublica folks.

So, any takers?

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