Senators Delay Stimulus Funds For Highways
by Mike Hasten - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE — The head of the state highway department is going "back to the drawing board" since state senators upset with his list of projects to be funded with federal stimulus payments blocked the proposal.

Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, who was sitting on the committee at the request of Senate President Joel Chaisson, said he could not vote for the DOTD plan because there was not enough money for I-49 North of Shreveport, even though he supports taking the money.

Adley was absent when the vote was taken. He said Chaisson, who supported the plan but could not attend the meeting, "asked me to leave" in a phone call during the meeting. Chaisson did not want his proxy voting against the proposal.

But Adley then questioned several projects, including $1 million for constructing a replacement bridge on a dirt road that primarily serves a "large enterprise." He said he could find better uses for the money, especially when transportation officials couldn't identify the "enterprise" that's on what Adley said was "a mud trail that has some gravel sprinkled on it here and there."

Ankner said $10 million of the money was specifically set aside in the federal legislation for "off-system bridges.