Stimulus Bill Money Spent on $3.4 Million Tunnel for Florida Turtles
Stimulus Package saves Florida turtles to the tune of $3.4 million for a 13 foot tunnel
Remember when the Obama administration claimed that the Stimulus Bill needed to be passed with utmost speed and that the bill would bring critical jobs that would help rebuild or improve our crumbling infrastructure? The Washington Examiner published an article highlighting the “questionable” projects funded by the Stimulus bill, which, in the end, will be paid for by tax payers for years, or even, decades to come.
Here’s just a few of the projects that have, or will receive stimulus money, courtesy of the Washington Examiner:
- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
- $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
- $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
- $1.15 million to install a guardrail for a persistently dry lake bed in Guymon, Okla.
- $1 million for Portland, Ore., to replace 100 aging bike lockers and build a garage that would house 250 bicycles.
By LBG
Image and Hattip: Rides a Pale Horse
this is okay.. shite, man. Humans have all but destroyed the earth. We have to protect other species on this planet. We take their land, so, we must provide ample earth for them to survive. Only makes sense if you understand a ‘humans, only” world would never be beneficial, nor really sustainable at all. We need other species for many, many balances on this planet.
I don’t know why it cost so much, but so be it. It is VERY little compared to what is spent killing the planet, destroying lives and military hardware.
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admin Reply:
November 6th, 2009 at 02:45
KDK,
Okay, let’s say I agree with you on the whole “destroying the planet thing”…
What about those volcanoes? Those bastards are killing us!
One good volcano eruption and it equals all of mankind’s effects on the CO2 in one year!
Let’s get those bastards first!!
You first, I’ve got your back!
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[...] MORE BANG FOR YOUR STIMULUS BUCKS: After a flurry of stimulus spending, questionable projects pile up. Susan Ferrechio: “$30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.” Think of all the worthless government spending on the sex lives of beetles and bridges to Nowhere and multiply it by the billions of dollars the “stimulus” provided. We’re betting you worked harder to earn the dollars that were taxed to provide for the Stimulus than the Stimulus recipients worked to get their handouts. But that’s just a guess. MORE: Stimulus Bill Money Spent on $3.4 Million Tunnel for Florida Turtles [...]
[...] Read the original post: Stimulus Bill Money Spent on $3.4 Million Tunnel for Florida … [...]
Joe Biden Sheriff of the Stimulus Funds said, “So if this — six months from now, if the verdict on this effort is that we’ve wasted the money, we built things that were unnecessary, or we’ve done things that are legal but make no sense, then, folks, don’t look for any help from the federal government for a long while. They’re going to make sure — the folks in the House and in the Senate are going to make sure you wear the jacket, not them.
So this is a big deal — this is a big deal. It’s also being closely watched not just by me, but by the President, and by Mr. Devaney, who is one of the most respected IGs we have in the federal government, and is known by many of you. And it’s also being watched by the taxpayers and it’s being watched by the media.
And that’s a good thing — that’s a good thing, because the resources being made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are a critical piece — a critical piece of how we’re going to get through this economic crisis, and just as importantly, how we’re going to build the economy of the future, which the Secretary referenced.
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The construction of the $6 million dollarTallahassee Turtle Tunnel(s) Turtlebahn is underway, thanks to the $3.4 million dollar subsidy from Stimulus money.
When added to previously spent funds totaling an estimate $2.6 million dollars, the questionable project will cost approximately $6 million dollars.
Located at US Highway 27 North near Tallahassee, Florida, the project rose from obscurity and attracted national attention when U.S. Senator Tom Coburn listed the turtle tunnel in his top 100 Worst Stimulus Spending Projects.
Well meaning proponents argue that the tunnel is need to help save turtles which are killed as they try to cross the four lane highway in an attempt to travel from the main body of the 1800 acre Lake Jackson to the adjacent 50 acre water body.
The well organized, politically astute supported convinced local and state politicians to support spending about $2.6 million in funds before momentum stalled. Stimulus dollars for the dubious spending projects have allowed construction to go forward.
While saving turtles lives from automobile traffic is noble, the allocation of resources for turtle tunnels is almost laughable when compared to the national transportation and human needs.
An inexpensive fabric filter fence installed by a local team of volunteers led by a biologist working on a study of turtles in Tallahassee, had reduced turtle mortality to an almost negligible amount.
Not satisfied, supporters lobbied for and have now received millions of dollars to construct new turtle tunnels and concrete walls that are suitable for stopping Abrams tank movements.
No good explanation has been given as to why the existing 8’ x 8’ culvert is not sufficient to handle the turtle traffic.
Rational thinking by most who examine the turtle problem would lead to the logical conclusion that an inexpensive chain link fence would suffice in stopping the turtle carnage, caused by turtle seeking higher grounds to lay their eggs or just traveling from one water body to another as turtles are prone to do, rather than the construction of expensive concrete tunnel and barrier infrastructure.
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Rides A Pale Horse Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 17:53
vigilocanis:
Rational thinking is no longer an ingredient in government decision making. Nor, apparently in a lot of the “thinking” of many citizens as evidenced by the comment by KDK above. Most likely a product of the government school system as well. But I’m sure he/she knows how to put a condom on a banana.
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