Sen. Jack Reed
Two Rhode Island agencies have been awarded a total of more than $2 million in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Northern Rhode Island Community Mental Health Center will receive $891,600 to help fund construction of a ten-unit housing development on Russo Street in Providence, which will help serve adults with mental disabilities. The Providence Community Action Program will receive a federal grant in the amount of $1.2 million to help fund the Dixon Court project that will build five townhouses for ten families.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed lobbied U.S. Secretary of Housing Andrew Cuomo in support of both agencies’ grant applications.
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“These developments will have far reaching effects for Rhode Islanders,” said Reed. “Affordable housing for low-income, disabled adults and their families is scarce.”
Wildlife refuges get infusion of federal dollars
In other news from the Capitol, U.S. Senators Lincoln Chafee and Jack Reed announced last week that Rhode Island’s five National Wildlife Refuges will receive an additional $2 million for land acquisition, bringing the state’s total allotment up to $2.5 million for Fiscal Year 2000.
The federal dollars may be used to purchase land in any of the five National Wildlife Refuges located in the Ocean State. They include Trustom Pond in South Kingstown, Pettaquamscutt Cove on the Narragansett/South Kingstown border, Sachuest Point in Middletown and the Block Island and Ninigret National Wildlife Refuges.
Reed said the money will help refuge managers to “improve the biological Rhode Island’s refuges all contain diversity and environmental health of the refuge complex, while preserving precious open space.”
Rhode Island’s refuges all contain diverse habitats, ranging from salt-marsh to woodlands, which are critical to the success of many species. The salt marshes of Pettaquamscutt Cove and the Ninigret Refuge, for example, provide feeding and spawning grounds for many species of fish. Migratory birds use the areas for resting, feeding and breeding grounds.
Detection of diseases in seniors, goal of Roger Williams program
The budget bill that passed the U.S. House last Thursday (Nov. 18) contained a $700,000 appropriation for Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence to offer a new program that emphasizes the prevention and early detection of disease among senior citizens.
The money will provide the first year of funding for a program called “Health Promotion and Disease Prevention for Rhode Island Senior Citizens,” to be offered by Roger Williams Medical Center, in conjunction with the New England Association of Labor Retirees and the Boston University School of Public Health.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy
At the request of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, funding for the new program was included in the final version of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, which passed the House on a vote of 296-135, and now moves to the Senate.
The appropriation was included as part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ budget for Fiscal Year 2000.
Seed money for computer accessibility in low-income homes
The Providence School Department and the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center have won $250,000 in U.S. House funding for a new initiative to make computers accessible in the homes of low-income families.
The funding was included in the education portion of the House Omnibus Appropriations Act, approved by the House.
The money will enable the Providence school system and the MET Center to move ahead with plans to establish a program called “Project Family Net: Linking Providence Students and Their Parents as Partners in Learning.” The funding will be used to begin the first stages of the program — in anticipation of future grant money through the U.S. Department of Education.
The Providence School Department was unsuccessful earlier this year in seeking a Technology Innovation Challenge Grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
“I had spoken to Education Secretary (Richard) Riley about the importance of the program, and was tremendously disappointed when the grant proposal was rejected this year,” said Kennedy.
Kennedy then worked with the late Senator John Chafee to include at least some funding to serve as seed money for the program in the Fiscal Year 2000 education budget during the conference negotiations involving House and Senate members.
“This community desperately needs equal access to computers to continue to learn and grow,” said Kennedy.
