Los Angeles Wave: Congresswoman Waters Announces $7 Million for South Bay Entities

by Olu Alemoru

South Bay cities and community organizations received a much needed financial boost Tuesday when Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, announced she had secured nearly $7 million in 2010 appropriations funding.

Waters outlined $6.85 million in awards to 12 entities at a press briefing held in the council chambers at Inglewood City Hall.

The awards ranged from $100,000 to $1.76 million and included; the cities of Gardena, Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale, Loyola Marymount University in Westchester, Los Angeles Southwest College, Beyond Shelter, Centinela Youth Services, West Basin Municipal Water District, First Community Development Corporation, the TELACU Neighborhood Stabilization Corporation and Flyer Defense LLC.

Inglewood received $100,000 for a water improvement project, Lawndale banked $350,000 for a new community center and $499,915 will go to Hawthorne for the Rosecrans San Diego (405) Freeway Ramp Widening project.

"These much needed funds for the widening project will improve safety and traffic flow," said Hawthorne City Manager Jim Mitsch in accepting the award.

Other monies saw $400,000 go to an early intervention project for Beyond Shelter, a Los Angeles based homeless charity; $200,000 to a parents advocacy program for Centinela Youth Services and $500,000 to TELACU's (The East Los Angeles Community Union) Neighborhood Stabilization Corporation.

Meanwhile, David W. Burcham, the newly appointed president of Loyola Marymount, which received $1.76 million to benefit its School of Science and Engineering, welcomed the award noting it would help the academic and employment needs of the region.

"These funds will help support research projects in Southern California," he said.

"They will also be used for initiatives like SECOP, the university's Science and Engineering Community Outreach Program, a two-week summer residential enrichment course for about 30 high school students who come from disadvantaged homes."

Burcham added that in the nine years the university has been operating the program, 100 percent of students who attended the course have gone on to attend college.

"There is sometimes confusion and mis-information about the congressional appropriations process, sometimes referred to as ‘earmarks' or more critically, sometimes they call it ‘pork,'" Waters said.

"[But] I will always believe that the appropriations process is a critical tool meant to support organizations who work to improve the quality of life for all our constituents.

"It's important to note that earmarks do not cost the federal government any additional money; members of Congress direct portions of money from an existent fund to organizations that submit concrete proposals for the work that betters their community and their country."

Waters added that she made no apologies for going after funds for her district.

"I'm not ashamed to ask for money," she said. "We have to create opportunities and access for the people we serve and those have to be paid for."